The walk, flag-raising and health event planned in Rayne to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been canceled.
According to a letter from Suzette Leonards, Cultural Director for the City of Rayne to organizers, the city can't authorize the event because there's no control on the number of people attending.
"The Louisiana stay safe guidelines that I sent to you to was specific to invitation only of 150 people or less for this event to safely proceed forward," the letter states. "When your committee advertised on TV stations, making an open public invitation to the Acadiana region to attend event, control has been lost of limiting the number of people attending.
"With this in mind, for the safety of our citizens, the City will no longer be able to authorize this year’s celebration to take place, due to threat of noncompliance of these guidelines. All other cities in our region have also cancelled due to the spike of Covid numbers in their local communities," the letter continues.
"We look forward to our future celebrations when it is safe to gather and honor Dr Martin Luther King," the letter states.
