Rip City Rally to bring Trail Blazers and festivities to Central Oregon

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Portland Trail Blazers and Moda Health announced the route for the 12th annual Rip City Rally, which will travel nearly 350 miles across Central Oregon from Sept. 14 through Sept. 18.

The tour will make community stops in Bend, Prineville, Madras, Warm Springs and Sandy.

Launched in 2013, the Rip City Rally has visited more than 40 Oregon cities and logged more than 6,000 miles statewide.

The annual tour connects with local communities through school programs, civic ceremonies and public fairs.

At each stop along the route, representatives from the Trail Blazers and Moda Health will visit local elementary, middle and high schools. The visits include school assemblies, physical education activities and career panels for students. Each stop also features a ceremonial ribbon-cutting and gift presentation with city officials prior to public events.

Community fairs will take place daily from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at designated locations in each city. The fairs feature interactive games, giveaways and appearances by team mascot Blaze the Trail Cat, the BlazerDancers, In-Arena Host Todd Bosma, team broadcasters and youth basketball coaches.

Moda Health and Delta Dental of Oregon will host activity booths offering interactive games, photo opportunities and gifts for health plan members. Nonprofit literacy organization SMART will also attend each fair to share reading resources for children.

As part of the rally, Moda Health will present monetary donations to selected local nonprofit organizations in each community. The recipient organizations are the Boys & Girls Club of Central Oregon in Bend, Crook County Kids Club in Prineville, Kids Club of Jefferson County in Madras and Todos Juntos in Sandy.

The tour begins Sept. 14 at The Pavilion in Bend, followed by Pioneer Park in Prineville on Sept. 15. The rally moves to Madras City Hall and Warm Springs on Sept. 16 before concluding Sept. 18 at Cedar Park in Sandy.