News » Torchlight Parade

You can’t go wrong with a warm evening, a lawn chair and a lot of cotton candy while waiting to see the Spokane Tribe’s parade entry at the 70^th Annual Torchlight Parade in downtown Spokane.

Families lined the streets watching beautiful animated floats, princesses, marching bands and a lot of smiles at the parade. Members of the Spokane Tribe and Wellpinit community took advantage of special reserved seating near the start point of the parade.

The Spokane Tribe’s parade entry included Wellpinit VFW Post 10711 members; Al Hubert, Francis Carson, Pat Moses and Dick Brisbois. Joining the VFW were members of the Wellpinit High School JROTC and tribal member Margo Hill with her children.

This is the second appearance within the Torchlight Parade by the Spokane Tribe and Wellpinit community.

During the parade a float broke down just prior to the Tribe’s group marching past the Wellpinit spectators. The unfortunate timing of the float’s mishap forced the live television coverage to go to a commercial break. Therefore the Spokane Tribal representatives were not included within the television broadcast.

The float wasn’t the only mishap on the parade route. Towards the start of the parade a military truck with Veterans aboard broke down near the Wellpinit spectators.

A few good Samaritans helped push the truck off of the parade route, including tribal member John Matt. And yes, John Matt and the broken down military truck did in fact make the live television broadcast!