The Cranston Police Department is sponsoring a Spring Festival at Rolfe Square this Sunday, May 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Community Outreach Captain Justin Dutra, a member of the department since 2001, said the police department held both a spring and fall festival last year and plans to do the same this year as part of its community relations initiatives. Dutra said his division has a small budget. He found a way to increase the opportunities available by creating an official non-profit organization, called CPD Cares, to fund the initiatives of his department.

“I raise money to throw different events through our company site online,” Dutra said of cpdcares.company.site. “We sell patches and coins and things like that. We raise money, and then I turn that money back out to different charitable donations and different organizations. This event is one of the two. I do a spring and a fall festival, and this event is one of our major fundraising events.”

Helping Dutra to organize vendors for the festival is Debbie Wood of We Be Jammin. Dutra said that Wood has a vast network organized of craft vendors from across the state that she can call on, and went on to say that her help has been instrumental in pulling together the event.

With the work that has gone into revitalizing Rolfe Square, Durtra thought it is a perfect location for this year’s festival. Previously the festival has been held at a site off of Sockanosset Crossroad, but the location filled up and barely held enough people last year. Combined with construction, moving the festival to a new place was a necessity.

“We’re going to have something for everybody,” Dutra said. “Right now I have about 170 craft vendors that are committed and have paid and reserved spots. Then we have approximately ten food trucks which include everything from ice cream, empanadas, hot dogs, barbeque, pizza and a little of everything else there. We’ll have 20X40 tents with tables and chairs by the food trucks that’ll be like a food court. We’ll have music playing under the tent while people enjoy their food, shopping and relax under the sun.”

In addition to all of that, Captain Dutra said there are some special attractions planned for kids. Bounce houses will be set up. Police canines will be there to put on demonstrations of their training. The department will be bringing police vehicles as well for children to check out and get a look at.

“The National Guard will be there with their rock-climbing wall,” Dutra went on. “The Artists’ Exchange will be setting up in front of their business there, and they’re going to have arts and crafts for the kids. They’re going to open their doors that day so they can hold arts and crafts inside and outside. The Park Theatre is going to be hosting a beer garden also. They’ll be hosting that, not the police department, but they’ll be there too.”

Dutra said that he was a detective commander for a few years when he took the office over. Colonel Winquist, he said, had chosen to expand the community outreach division. This took the division from one person to a three man unit, Dutra said. He said he could use more people, but the division does what it can and works with many community partners like the Rotary Club, OneCranston and Gateway Healthcare.

“You name it I’ll take help and partner with anybody,” Dutra said. “We’re utilizing every square inch of Rolfe Square from Park Avenue all the way down to the Sam’s Market where it meets Pontiac on the South end. I hope we have a beautiful day and get plenty of people out there.”

Those worried about their favorite stores being closed need not be. Dutra said that all the regular businesses on Rolfe Square will be open as usual without interference from the festival. Side streets will still allow access to businesses and parking lots, even though there will not be street parking on Rolfe Square during the festivities. Many businesses, Dutra said, will be setting up their own booths outside on the street to make themselves even more accessible during Spring Fest.