MOSES LAKE — Grant County senior citizens are encouraged to wear their best Kentucky Derby hats and join the parade at the seventh annual senior picnic from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the Grant County Fairgrounds, 3953 NE Airway Drive, in Moses Lake.

“A Day at the Races” is the theme. Organizer Terri Riley-Brown said participants are encouraged to wear their best party hats, just like they would at a party at a Triple Crown race, or to the Ascot Racecourse in the U.K.

Riley-Brown said the picnic is for seniors only.

“This is a time to honor senior citizens in our community,” she said.

For most of its seven years, the picnic has been a sit-down soirée at the fairgrounds, with vendors and door prizes, but the 2020 pincic was a drive-thru affair due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the pandemic is easing, it’s still hanging around, so picnic organizers opted to ask guests to drive through for a second year.

“We don’t want to take any chances,” Riley-Brown said.

The 2020 picnic was at the Moses Lake Senior Center and the crowd overflowed the lot. So organizers moved it back to the fairgrounds, where there’s more room for participants and vendors.

Seniors will pick up lunch and a bag of goodies as they drive through. Rather than door prizes, some randomly selected box lunches will have door prize notifications, what Riley-Brown called the “golden pony.” Seniors then can make arrangements to pick up the prize, she said.

Lunch will be provided by local senior facilities, including the senior center, Avamere at Moses Lake, Summer Wood Alzheimer’s Special Center and Brookdale Hearthstone. The facilities are making and donating lunch, Riley-Brown said. Bottles of water will be donated by Walgreens.