Throwing a birthday bash for Smokey at Harrington Beach

Smokey Bear, the face of the U.S. Forest Service’s “Only you can prevent forest fires” campaign, received a lot of love earlier this month at Harrington Beach State Park in the Town of Belgium, where his 80th birthday was celebrated with cake and a hike. Smokey was flanked by children as he checked out his cake (top), received a hug from Lillian Hall (right) and posed for a selfie with Emma Payel. Bear cookies, one of which was sampled by Otto Hackett as his brother Ari looked on, were also on the menu (left). The Smokey Bear forest fire prevention campaign was launched in 1944 and is the longest-running public service campaign in U.S. history. His message was changed to “Only you can prevent wildfires”  in 2001 in response to an outbreak of wildfires in natural areas other than forests. The living symbol of Smokey Bear was a 3-month-old American black bear cub who was found injured in the spring of 1950 after the Capitan Gap fire in New Mexico. The cub, later named Smokey Bear, was eventually transferred to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where, during his 26 years there, he received millions of visitors and so much mail that the U.S. Postal Service gave him his own ZIP code, which is still in use. Smokey’s recent birthday party in the Town of Belgium was organized by the Friends of Harrington Beach.          Photos by Sam Arendt