By RUSS OLIVO

LINCOLN — There may be other celebratory events in the vicinity to mark the occasion, but one thing Dave Sale is sure of: none will draw a bigger crowd than the town’s venerable Memorial Day Parade.

“Up to 10,000 people will be attending, believe it or not,” says Sale, the coordinator of the parade for more than two decades. “It is the largest attended event on Memorial Day in the Blackstone Valley.”
Rain or shine, the five-division parade will kick off Monday at 11 a.m. on Smithfield Avenue, near the Pawtucket line, and head north to the Saylesville Fire Station at Dow Square. To cap the festivities, the town will treat anyone and everyone to free hot dogs at the nearby Senior Center on Chapel Street.
The theme of this year’s parade is “Treasure Our Freedom,” with a trophy and $100 prize to be awarded at the finale to the float that best embodies the theme, according to Sale.
“The winner doesn’t have to be the prettiest float to win,” says Sale. “It’s not the Parade of Roses. It could be the most unattractive float, as long as it fits the theme.”
The grand marshal for this year’s parade is Larry Goucher, a veteran of Vietnam who will ride in a convertible at the head of the procession. But Sale has extended an invitation to all war veterans to join in and march alongside Goucher’s vehicle to form a veterans honor guard.
As it has been for the last several years, the parade is dedicated to the memory of the late World War II veteran Bill Horlbogen, for whom the annual Memorial Day celebration was a point of pride. The dedication tradition began when Horlbogen died shortly before a Memorial Day Parade several years ago. His family also retains the honor of appointing a relative as one of three judges in the float competition, according to Sale.
A wide assortment of local and regional organizations, clubs and individuals will once again be featured in the five divisions of the Memorial Day Parade, Sale says. They will include the Lincoln High School Marching Band, a Lincoln Police Honor Guard, elected officials, the Lincoln Little League, Cub Scouts, clowns, gymnasts, the Shriners, bagpipers, Tony the Dancing Cop and a host of others.
Like Bristol’s Fourth of July Parade, Lincoln’s Memorial Day Parade is a tradition that is deeply embedded in the roots of the community, according to Sale. As long as he’s been the coordinator, people have been asking him how long the town has hosted the parade, but his best guess is that it’s been longer than anyone can remember.
“I’ve never really been able to find that out,” he says.
The town budgets little money for the Memorial Day celebration. Twin River casino donates most of the food for the after-parade fest. While the hot dogs are free, the town raises some money from the sale of drinks at the big feed.
Private donations, an annual pasta dinner and $50 permitting fees for vendors to set up along the parade route generate most of the revenue for the parade, according to Sale.