City of Walker Cancels Memorial Day Parade 2021

With Memorial Day coming up May 31, you may be wondering what West Michigan events will be happening given the ongoing pandemic.

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For the second year in a row, the City of Walker has canceled its Memorial Day Parade due to COVID-19.

The City of Walker shared the news to Facebook saying,

Due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, and the type of strain our State is experiencing, we've decided to postpone our annual Memorial Day Parade until 2022. While we had hoped to bring back this yearly tradition - honoring the men and women who gave their lives for our country - we carefully weighed out the options and feel this is the best decision we can make for our community, given the guidance of the Kent County Health Department.

They say they hope to be able to hold "much safer and stronger" events later this summer.

It's surreal to look back at their parade cancellation announcement last year. In 2020 they announced the news to Facebook, saying:

Whether we are still in the middle of the outbreak or shortly removed from it by May 25, we feel the safety of our veterans, parade participants, volunteers and residents should come first and foremost at this time.

A year later I know so many of us had hoped we'd be closer to returning to "normal" and able to attend the community events we love. It's a reminder to me that we are not out of this yet and we have to continue doing our part by getting vaccinated, social distancing, and masking up to combat this virus.