Between 80 and 90 brightly lit floats and other entries will illuminate the winter sky Thursday as the annual Bainbridge Christmas parade makes its way down Shotwell Street.

The parade, which will also feature the award-winning Bainbridge High School Marching Bearcat Band and a special appearance by Santa Claus along with local pageant winners, businesses and civic groups, begins at 7 p.m. at the intersection of Shotwell Street and Wheat Avenue,

It will proceed west on Shotwell Street and turn right on Broad Street. It will turn left on Water Street and right on West Street before ending at River Plaza Shopping Center.

Coach Spencer “Onion” Davis, who led the Bainbridge High School Bearcats football team to numerous outstanding seasons from 1955 to 1965, will be the parade grand marshal.

Davis, who led the Bearcats to a 10-0 regular season and Region 1AA championship in 1960, an 8-2 record in 1958, a 9-1 record in 1959, a 7-2-2 record in 1961 and a 7-3 record in 1962, said he considers being selected Christmas parade grand marshal a real honor.

“The thing that I am most proud of is that so many of the athletes and non-athletes I had a chance to coach or advise as assistant principal, turned out to be such fine productive citizens,” he said.

A Davis-Williams Scholarship Fund, named for Davis and his top assistant Sam Williams, who succeeded him as head coach and led the Bearcats to a 9-2 record in 1966, a 6-4 record in 1967 and a 8-1 record in 1968, has been established at Bainbridge High School.

The scholarship announcement was made at a special reception in their honor Sept. 26 at the Elcan-King Elementary School cafeteria.

If the parade is rained out it will be rescheduled for Monday, Dec. 15, at 7 p.m. Any updates on the parade’s status can be obtained by accessing thepost-searchlight.com web site.

This year’s parade is the ninth held since 2000, when organizers restarted the tradition after a 15-year absence.