In The News

Downtown Stroll, Halloween Parade Saturday
Originally printed in The Westerly Sun
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

WESTERLY - The Westerly Substance Abuse Task Force and the WesterlyPawcatuck Downtown Business Association present the sixth Halloween Downtown Stroll where costumed kids' - young and old - trick-or-treat at downtown-area businesses.

The event, which also features a costumed children's parade and a costume contest, comes at the end of national Red Ribbon Week, a drug and alcohol awareness event supported annually by the task force observed the last week of October.

The stroll, the idea of WSATF coordinator Mary Lou Serra, kicks off on Halloween, Saturday, at 4:30 p.m., with trick-ortreating until 6:30 p.m. in downtown Westerly / Pawcatuck.

The WSATF-sponsored Halloween Parade, in which everyone is invited to join, begins at 6 p.m., with parade-participants meeting at the Westerly Post Office on High Street. Afterward, there will be a children's costume contest.

The Halloween event was created in part by the Task Force to be incorporated into Red Ribbon Week; a way to wrap up a week's worth of drug and alcohol abuse prevention events held in area schools.

"As I've said, we try to provide safe and fun events for kids to celebrate Halloween but we're hoping they get this message: That you can have a really good time without using substances. We don't count candy," Serra said. As part of Red Ribbon Week, the Westerly Middle School promotes drug and alcohol abuse prevention awareness with a banner proclaiming the week-long event, announcements, a 'wear-red day,' as well as a poster/essay contest for students to participate in. And at St. Pius X School, students participated in a 'wear red day' as they donned Red Ribbon Week wristbands.