Seven-year-old Ryleigh Blue, who is in first grade at Tucker Valley, recently had a dream come true. Blue’s mother, Shirley Blue said, “She loves to watch Smokey every day on the way to and from school to see if he has changed since the last time. A few weeks ago, she was very excited to learn that Smokey goes above high as we saw extreme and Burning Ban.”
Knowing that she was interested Blue sent an email to the West Virginia Forestry Service to find out who changes the sign to see if she would be able to help change it sometime. Blue said, “They funneled me down to the local office where I spoke with John Reese who directed me to Kevin White. My husband reached out to Kevin, and they agreed to let her change the sign and set up a time to meet at the sign by the bridge just before Jim Propst’s and right past Mill Race Park.
Kevin White and Tom Klus came with the fire truck and a ladder. They helped her climb up and change it from Moderate to Low. She could not stop smiling the entire time and laughed with them. They were super nice and thanked her for coming out to help them. When we left, she said it was the coolest thing she had ever done, and she couldn’t stop smiling for a long time.
I wanted to share her story because it is one of the sweet things, we are able to do living in an amazing small town. I have lived in Parsons for most of my life. I moved from Parsons when I got married, and we relocated back here five years ago because we wanted to be close to family and raise our kids here.”