Dearborn’s annual Memorial Day Parade will be canceled again this year, due to pandemic precautions.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
DEARBORN – The city’s annual Memorial Day Parade, for which planning begins in September, will not be held for a second year, due to COVID-19, Mary Laundroche, Department of Public Information director, said.
“I am trying to come up with something that would be meaningful and speak to our long patriotic tradition in Dearborn,” she said Feb. 16, at the online Mayor’s briefing with the city council, in response to questions.
Laundroche said she had made an effort to speak with Dearborn Allied War Veterans Council Commander Bill Bazzi for ideas, but since he was recently appointed as mayor of Dearborn Heights, she said she is giving him some time to get settled in to that responsibility before approaching him for ideas.
“It is my intention to have some alternative ideas to propose to the veterans, and also to get their input,” she said. “I am hoping, of course, that we can do something, but I don’t see any way to really do a parade, and keep everybody safe.”
Laundroche said, in addition, it is too late in the process to start planning a parade, and the 20-hour-per-week veteran liaison position is not currently staffed.