Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering helps to carry the banner during the community walk on July 4 in downtown Highland Park. (Photo by Karie Angell Luc/for Chronicle Media)

The City of Highland Park and the Park District of Highland Park of Illinois planned events for July 4, 2023 to offer the community multiple opportunities to gather throughout the day and evening.

Seven people died July 4, 2022, during the city’s Independence Day parade and many were injured in a shooting that lasted one minute with 83 rounds of gunfire.

Remembered are deceased victims Katie Goldstein of Highland Park, Irina McCarthy of Highland Park, Kevin Michael McCarthy of Highland Park, Stephen Straus of Highland Park, Jacki Lovi Sundheim of Highland Park, Nicolás Toledo of Morelos, Mexico and Eduardo Uvaldo of Waukegan.

This year’s events began with a remembrance ceremony in front of City Hall at 1707 St. Johns Ave.

The community walk took place on Central Avenue in downtown Highland Park. (Photo by Karie Angell Luc/for Chronicle Media)

From there, the Community Walk took place, traveling down Central Avenue along the parade route where last year suspect Bobby Crimo III of Highwood allegedly fired rounds on Port Clinton Square. Injured included children, one who has paralysis and a toddler who lost both parents.

During the Remembrance Ceremony, which had a minute of silence for the deceased victims, Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering told the audience, “Last summer’s shooting was the bloodiest day we ever experienced in Highland Park.

“Seven precious people were senselessly murdered, dozens more were horrifically injured, and thousands were traumatized by a hateful and cowardly individual who opened fire with an assault weapon during a uniquely American holiday parade.

The community walk took place on Central Avenue. (Photo by Karie Angell Luc/for Chronicle Media)

“We don’t need the date or holiday to remind us about what happened. We live with it every day. Each one of us. Even as the world moves on, the loss and the pain will never leave us.”

People attending the 10 a.m. Remembrance Ceremony on City Hall’s front lawn included community members who registered to attend plus dignitaries including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Pritzker was seen accompanying Rotering and other elected officials as a banner was carried down Central Avenue during the Community Walk to Sunset Woods Park for a picnic. The walk was a way to help people reclaim the parade route.

“It was important for us to say that evil doesn’t win and this is our parade route and this is our community that we are taking back,” Rotering said.

The evening program included Highland Park native and actor Gary Sinise who made possible the

The Rev. Hernan Cuevas, pastor of Christ Our Hope Parish of Highland Park and Highwood, prays at City Hall. (Photo by Karie Angell Luc/for Chronicle Media)

Gary Sinise & the Lt. Dan Band concert at Wolters Field. The We Are Highland Park Drone Show followed, also at Wolters Field.

Other Remembrance Ceremony speakers included the Rev. Hernan Cuevas, pastor of Christ Our Hope Parish of Highland Park and Highwood.

“Let us not let this anniversary pass by as one more year in our calendars,” Cuevas said. “Let us make it special by planting the seed of peace in our hearts and committing ourselves to being peacemakers in our families, our communities, and our society.

“Let us reject violence and hatred in all its forms, and embrace dialogue, reconciliation and mercy,” Cuevas said.

Rabbi Isaac Serotta of Congregation Makom Solel Lakeside also spoke.

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering presides over the moment of silence in honor of the seven victims. (Photo by Karie Angell Luc/for Chronicle Media)

“In this moment we recognize that there are some who stand here at City Hall, some who are gone forever because of a tragic act of gun violence, and some who cannot be here, cannot face the crowd and relive that terror,” Solel said.

“Today we come together as they did at Sinai in ancient times, those who are here and those who are not here, all of us are Highland Park Together.”

“Together Highland Park Unidos” is promoted as a unifying message. Many attendees wore bright royal blue T-shirts that read, “We are Highland Park” with a star.

The Rev. Quincy Worthington of Highland Park Presbyterian Church said during remarks, “Our community may never go back to what it once was. “We may always carry the scar of July 4, 2022 with us. But friends, it will heal. Let’s model healing with the real work of loving our neighbor and tending to the soul and hurts of those wounded among us. And let us not rest.

“Let us not rest until every weapon is beaten into a plowshare, every gun into a pruning hook, and we study war and violence no more.”