After a three-year hiatus, the Westerly-Pawcatuck Columbus Day parade is back. Hundreds of people gathered to participate and watch the return of a community tradition that goes back more than 70 years on Sunday afternoon. “Community tradition is the most important thing," Jeff Frenette, the parade committee's vice president said. "We thought you know it's been a few years we just need to have it.”

The annual tradition was first canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic and didn't return for the next two years either. Now at a time when more and more Columbus Day events are being canceled or renamed for indigenous peoples, organizers said they aren't worried about bringing it back. "This is an Italian community," he said. "It's who we are."