For more than 50 years, area residents and summer visitors have flocked to the shoreline in mid-July to see a parade of firetrucks, snap photos with Smokey the Bear and interact with area first responders. Members of the Dunn's Corners Fire Department are not about to let the COVID-19 pandemic bring that tradition to an end.
Officials said this week that "the show will go on," with the return of the annual Karl E. Kenyon Smokey Bear Parade through Westerly and Charlestown on July 16. The annual parade will look a bit different this year, admitted Dunn's Corners Fire Capt. Jeffrey Thomas, but the abridged program will allow the agency to keep the tradition alive while simultaneously protecting volunteers and those in the community.