Some things a company supports with a sponsorship. This one we support with people.

Every November, our company volunteers its time and staff to the Douglas County Veterans Day Parade. It is not a sponsorship. It is a morning when the work at the office waits and the team heads downtown to help a long-running local tradition do what it was built to do: thank the people who served.

The help is practical. Our staff direct traffic, set barricades on the streets that lead into the parade route and usher families toward the curb. Company trucks get parked across intersections to keep the route closed and safe. And whatever else the county needs that morning, we try to be the people who say yes.

A tradition older than most of the people watching it

The parade has been held in Roseburg every year since 1955. Douglas County calls it "Oregon's Greatest Veterans Day Parade," and the National Veterans Day Committee has recognized it as one of only 56 regional sites among the top Veterans Day observances in the country.

The timing is deliberate. The parade starts at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the moment the armistice ending World War I took effect in 1918. Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, and Roseburg still keeps the clock.

Parade day

71st Annual Douglas County Veterans Day Parade

ThemeAmerica's 250, 1776 to 2026

DateWednesday, November 11, 2026

Time11 a.m.

WhereDowntown Roseburg

This year's theme marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, a fitting year to honor everyone who has served in the generations since.

Why a technology company spends the morning downtown

Our company is veteran-led. Supporting the people who served was never something anyone here had to be talked into, and the parade is the most direct way we know to say thank you in person.

It is also simply where our people are. The folks who work here live in Douglas and Coos counties. The veterans riding in the parade are their neighbors, their customers, their parents and grandparents. Showing up for them on November 11 is not a marketing decision. It is what happens when your staff and the people they are thanking shop at the same grocery store.

Most of what a company like ours gives back looks like a check, a few refurbished laptops or a network someone could not otherwise afford. The parade is different. Time is the one thing you cannot buy back, and for one morning a year, it is the thing we give.

A moment from the 2025 Douglas County Veterans Day Parade in Roseburg — From the 2025 parade. We will be back on November 11.

How you can be part of it

Come watch

Bring the family downtown before 11 a.m. on November 11. A crowd along the route is the loudest thank you a veteran can get. If you pass one of our crews at a barricade on the way in, the detour is there to keep the route safe, and we are glad to point you to the closest spot to watch.

Put your business or group in the parade

Entry forms are available at the Douglas County Veterans Service Office or online through the parade committee, and they are due Friday, October 30, 2026. For details, call (541) 580-4800 or visit the Veterans Day Parade Committee page.

Thank a veteran you know

Not everyone can make it downtown on a Wednesday morning. A call, a note or a handshake on November 11 still counts.

Sources: The 2026 parade details come from the Douglas County Veterans Day Parade Committee. The parade's history and national recognition come from Douglas County, and the Armistice Day background from the City of Roseburg.

The parade is one part of a longer story

Youth programs, trades scholarships, school activities, food security and veterans organizations. See where the team shows up when there is no invoice attached.

See our community work

Running a local program or event? Email gekborg@systech.io to request sponsorship.