The Owensboro-Daviess County Christmas Parade scheduled for Nov. 21 has been cancelled. The announcement was made on the organization’s Facebook page Friday morning.
The cancellation is primarily due to the recent surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the area, according to the announcement.
In lieu of a parade, the Board of Directors is in communication with other local organizations to partner for ways to help the community during the holiday season.
The full announcement reads as follows:
After careful consultation with officials, some past participants, sponsors, and health professionals and out of concern for the safety of our citizens, participants, and volunteers, the volunteer Board of Directors has made the difficult decision tonight to cancel the 2020 Owensboro-Daviess County Christmas Parade scheduled for November 21, 2020.
Following increased and overwhelming concerns about the COVID-19 virus, seeing a continuing surge in the number of positive cases and hospitalizations since September 20, and attempting to work with the increased expenses hosting an event would entail this year, the committee agreed that hosting a large gathering of people is not the safest and wisest way to proceed during such an unprecedented situation. Our volunteer committee is very disappointed that we are unable to hold this event but we know it’s the right decision based on the information we have today.
We make this decision after hours of discussion and with the understanding that there will be some that may not understand or support the decision to cancel. The safety of the public is always at the forefront of our planning and this decision was extremely hard to make but public safety must be a priority.
While we will not be hosting the parade as we know it, we are very excited to report that we are in communication with some very special organizations in order to partner together with them to help our community celebrate the holiday season. We will announce how our holiday partnerships will look and how families can celebrate with us in the weeks to come once those partnerships are finalized.
Please know that our committee remains committed to the annual Christmas parade and will begin planning for the 2021 parade in January 2021. Please continue to watch our FaceBook page for announcements of events and partnerships to come!
As of Thursday’s report by the Green River District Health Department, there had been 1,820 reported cases of COVID-19 in Daviess County, along with 128 hospitalizations and 28 coronavirus-related deaths. There have been 1,612 recoveries, and 12 people are currently hospitalized.
In total for the seven-county Green River District, there have been 4,701 reported cases and 3,931 recoveries. There have been 343 hospitalizations to date, with 36 currently hospitalized. There have also been 82 coronavirus-related deaths.
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