Anyone for a parade? It may seem an odd time for the virtual 2020 EUG Parade/Pet Promenade, originally scheduled for September, but COVID and thick wildfire smoke be damned, organizers remained hard at work for the fourth annual parade, now set for Oct. 4. “It would speak to the resilience of the community,” says Jerril Nilson, a volunteer and one of three SLUG queens on the organizing committee along with Jenette Kime and Leigh Anne Jasheway. Typically, the parade partners with Eugene’s Sunday Streets program, but COVID has currently wiped that out. The current EUG Parade/Pet Promenade started in 2017, and Jasheway notes it’s not the first time the parade has been called to help relieve the stress all of us have felt with life. She recalls the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and that year’s parade happening days later. “It would be a more somber, patriotic parade,” Jasheway says of the 2001 event. “It was different. People said they needed to get out of the house.” We still do, but until COVID flattens, we’ll take the virtual parade.

The 2020 EUG Parade/Pet Promenade (“Bounce Forward”) starts 11 am Sunday, Oct. 4, and can be found at EUG Parade on YouTube.