Child safety should always be a priority during any public event where children are present. Child safety was not a priority on Third Street during the Fourth of July parade this year. Children between the approximate ages of five and nine years old were allowed to stand 10 and sometimes 20 feet from the curb during the second half of the parade.

Enter the parade participant “candy throwers” that the kids love so much. Pandemonium broke out each time the candy was distributed with kids running around to pick it up.

With or without candy, children need to be controlled with a safety buffer between them and the parade.

There was no safety buffer on Third Street this year. If candy is going to be thrown out during the parade, I suggest having a rope barrier enforced by volunteers. You cannot have a safe environment for children when they are running around chasing candy while heavy parade vehicles are passing in close proximity.

This was very evident to me, but apparently not to most parents sitting on the curb, the majority of whom made no attempt to control their children.

~Don McConaghy, Kirkland