Casco Bay Summertime Parade of Lights

Name: Casco Bay Summertime Parade of Lights
Start: 2024-08-10T20:30:00-04:00
End: 2024-08-10T21:45:00-04:00
Location: Casco Bay, Portland

Schedule

Sat Aug 10 2024 at 08:30 pm to 09:45 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Casco Bay, Portland | Portland, ME

The 11th Annual Casco Bay Summertime Parade of Lights will be held on August 10, 2024. This is a free charitable event in which the South Portland Lion’s Club and Southern York County Toys for Tots have partnered together to present a lighted boat parade. The mission of the Parade is to stimulate boating activity on Casco Bay by spending creative time decorating our boats and showing them off to each other and spectators in the name of helping others who are less fortunate.
In this event’s 11-year history, it has had over 160 boats participate, collected over 1100 toys, and raised over $16,400 for the "Toys for Tots" Organization.
In 2023, Southern York County Toys for Tots was able to provide 1,193 children with over 7,050 toys at Christmas time.
Lion’s International was founded in 1917 by Melvin Jones. He collaborated with other men’s clubs in the Chicago area to combine the collective talents of the members to improve their communities. This organization soon morphed into a worldwide organization. In 1925 Helen Keller spoke at the international convention and became the inspiration for Lion’s commitment to vision related causes. The South Portland Lion’s Club was founded in 1928. At the local level, the South Portland Lion’s club has provided vision and sight vouchers to residents who require assistance with their eye care needs. The Lions additionally support the Harry Phillips Scholarship and Lancaster / Macleod Scholarship for graduating South Portland High School students, Trucking for Kids – Camp Sunshine and other community level causes.
Toys for Tots was founded in 1947 as the result of the wife of a United States Marine Corps Major being unable to find an accepting organization to donate toys to needy children in the Los Angeles area. In 1995, the Secretary of Defense approved Toys for Tots as an official mission of the Marine Corps Reserve. The mission of the program "is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted”. Southern Maine York County Toys for Tots was founded in 2008 and provides Christmas presents to over 1,400 children yearly.
The 2024 Casco Bay Summertime Parade of Lights will be held on the following date/time:
• Date: Saturday, August 0, 2024
• Time: Staging 8:10 PM / Start 8:30 PM
• Location: Casco Bay – Fore River.
• Viewing: Bug Light Park; Maine State Pier; Ocean Gateway; Local Marinas & Piers along the
parade route
• Facebook: Casco Bay Summertime Parade of Lights
• Venmo: @Shawn-Welch-Committed2