Spring 2020 was looking quite bleak to say the least, with schools and many businesses closed and many staying home as the pandemic surged in our state.

The situation seemed dismal, and adults and children were getting a little blue. When it was time to celebrate, many parents were wondering what to do in order to make their child’s birthday “special” in the midst of a pandemic.

This is where Ledyard’s emergency responders came in.

“At first we didn’t think of doing birthday parades until one family reached out to us,” Chief Jon Mann of the Ledyard Fire Company said.” So we decided to give it a try. After seeing the joy we brought to the family with the first parade, we decided we should keep doing them.”

Lt. Ken Creutz of the Ledyard Police Department agreed.

“With people staying home and observing social distancing recommendations, we saw that the most important things in life, like kids’ birthdays, graduations, retirements, etc. were not being recognized and celebrated with families and friends as these life events normally would,” he said. “So that’s why we at the Ledyard Police Department decided we would provide a drive-by or short ‘parade’ to hopefully brighten people’s lives during these difficult times.” 

Mann’s inspiration to help was the children.

“Most young children didn’t understand why they couldn’t have parties or play with all their friends on a regular basis,” he said. “After seeing the excitement we brought to the community it inspired us to keep going to help them out and bring a moment of joy to them in these difficult times.”

Ledyard Fire Company is mostly made up of volunteers who signed up to serve in order to help people. The number of calls for assistance dropped while people stayed at home, and trainings moved online.

“To most of us, it seemed like we weren’t doing much,” Mann said. “These parades helped us come together stronger as a community because it shows we are all standing together, also it helps us to continue our pride in helping others.”

Word of these parades spread through social media, word of mouth and videos.

“Once we did one they started spreading all over the community,” Mann said. “Families would reach out to us either by email or on Facebook. Once we got their request we put them on the list.”

Lt. Creutz added, “We started implementing these little “parades” and found ourselves doing one of two almost daily!”

There has been no hesitation for the Ledyard Fire Company, nor the Ledyard Police Department to help the community during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Obviously, we protect ourselves and the community by wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment,” Creutz said. “But we remain true to our mission, ‘To provide an exemplary level of service and protection to the residents of the Town of Ledyard, and to those who may visit, work in, or travel through our community.’”

Mann considers members of his company heroes.

“We are still helping others, but I can’t just include myself on this, I couldn’t do it without my members of the company,” he said. “This is a whole different world right now that we haven’t seen. All of our frontline workers are heroes right now especially the healthcare workers, without them we all would be struggling to get through these times.”

Creutz has a slightly different outlook.

“I do not consider myself a hero… Personally, I signed on to do the job of a police officer and that’s how I see it,” he said. “My job is to do what is necessary to keep the community and my fellow officers safe. I have seen officers perform heroic acts many times during my career, that’s for sure. But I would venture to say that most of those officers would say they considered their actions part of their ‘everyday’ job.

“Helping those in need is precisely why we dedicated the time to these drive-by visits and parades,” he added. “We feel that the ‘need’ is a little happiness and enjoyment during a time that has taken some of that away from a lot of people. And we really are honored to help celebrate these life events with people in our community! And we love seeing the kids’ reaction to our red and blue light show.”

“These are difficult times, but the biggest thing to remember is we are all one community. No one is alone on this, if there is a way the fire company can assist we will…. Stay Safe.” Mann said.

Creutz’ message to the Ledyard community: “Stay safe and know that the Ledyard Police Department is here for you 24/7/365.”  

On June 8 Ledyard Police Department posted on Facebook with the following message: Thanks for all the Party Invitations! Over the past few months, we’ve participated in dozens of birthday parades and other “pandemic parties” with LPD vehicles. It’s been a lot of fun and we’ve seen a lot of smiling faces. We regret that due to our call volume increasing as sectors of the economy reopen, we will not be able to participate in such events effective June 15, 2020.  We will honor our current promises and commitments but will not be able to schedule any additional parade escorts. Thanks for understanding.”

Ledyard Fire Company posted a similar message on their Facebook page: “Over the past few months, we have participated in many birthday parades and other special occasions throughout town with our volunteers and vehicles. We have enjoyed being part of these occasions and hope we helped make these events a little more enjoyable for everyone! As we start returning to normal operations, we will unfortunately not be able to participate in these events after June 15, 2020. We are still committed to all events we have scheduled currently but will not be scheduling any other events after that date.”

Those who have attended a birthday parade can attest to the joy it brought to the adult/child who was having a special birthday, or special occasion, as well as to the joy it brought to everyone participating in the parade. Though the Ledyard Police Department, Ledyard Fire Company and the Gales Ferry Volunteer Fire Company may not consider themselves heroes, to everyone who they have made smile and brightened their days — they are all heroes. The community of Ledyard thanks the emrgency responders for their service, and for the smiles.

Aidan Schuler of Ledyard is a recent graduate of The Williams School and part of the Times’ Young Journalists Initiative.