After a meeting with the City of Carmel, the Carmel Rotary Club decided that candy can be distributed this year at Fourth of July parade.
Last year the parade committee decided to ban the distributing of candy because there were concerns about children running into the street and almost being hit by parade cars.
Barbara Ellis, 2017’s parade director, said there was a meeting and the City of Carmel offered support and supervision to help avoid any safety concerns. As a result, candy distributing can return.
“We’ve been in on a lot of discussion about this and a lot of thought went into this,” she said. “Previously we could not get sufficient cooperation from people distributing the candy and the parents watching the kids. Trust me , we bounced back on this so much last year. Obviously there are a lot of safety concerns still but the City is going to be a huge factor to provide the manpower needed for supervision. We really thank the City of Carmel for this cooperation.”
Ellis said the safety concerns were real last year and that there were a lot of close calls in the past but she said everyone feels confident that this solution should make everyone happy. The fun tradition of distributing candy can return but safety will still be a priority.
“It should make a lot of people happy,” she said. “It appears that candy will come back but under safer conditions.”
