Memorial Day 2019, a start to Summer and a Day of Remembrance
The Memorial Day weekend is typically seen as a start to the summer season. It should be remembered, however as the time to reflect on those brave men and women that have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our country and way of life.
Below is a partial list of the towns in the Greater Waterbury area that will hold commemorative celebrations this weekend
BEACON FALLS
Memorial Day services, “Uniform Blues and Grays,” will begin Saturday at 5 p.m. with poppy distributions at St. Michael Church, 25 Maple Ave.
Poppy distributions will continue Sunday at St. Michael at 7:30, 9:15 and 11 a.m., with services also at 11 a.m. Poppy distributions and services will take place at 10 a.m. at the Congregational Church, 69 Wolfe Ave.
A breakfast with responders will be at 8:30 a.m. at the Beacon Hose Company No. 1, 35 N. Main St., followed by a memorial services for departed first responders at 10 a.m. Memorial Day services take place at 12:30 p.m. at Veterans Park, 13 N. Main St.
CHESHIRE
Cheshire’s annual Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony will be on the Church Green on Saturday at 10 a.m. The Cheshire Veterans Council, which consists of American Legion Post 92, VFW Post 10052, Army Air Force Round Table, Disabled American Veterans and AMVETS, is sponsoring the ceremony.
The parade, which also will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy invasion, will be Sunday, beginning at 1:30 p.m at Cheshire Police Headquarters/Highland School, and ending at Cheshire High School. The parade will stop at Veterans Memorial Plaza while a 40-minute ceremony is performed and taps is played.
Veterans, the police and fire departments, and Girl and Boy Scouts will open the ceremony.
An Eagle Scout and Girl Scout Gold Rank will lead the audience in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Chaplain Randy Tapp, of the American Legion, will ask the invocation and give the benediction.
A wreath will be placed at the Civil War monument and buglers from the Cheshire High School marching band will sound taps. Members of the Cheshire High School VIP Chorus will sing the national anthem and “America, the Beautiful.”
Cheshire Town Councilwoman Patti Flynn-Harris will convey greetings on behalf of the town, which co-sponsors the event.
Pvt. Lester Rochford, VFW Post 10052, will give free cemetery flags to anyone present. A group of Boy Scouts, under the direction of VFW post members Don Falk and Amy Waraksa, also will place flags on the graves of veterans buried in Cheshire’s five cemeteries.
MIDDLEBURY
The Middlebury Lions Club will sponsor a veterans memorial service, honoring all veterans, at noon Sunday at Middlebury Cemetery, Cemetery Road off Route 64, behind the garage. The ceremony will include an honor guard and rifle salute from the VFW. Local Boy Scouts will raise the flag at the start of the ceremony, and lower it as taps is played.
Prayers of invocation and benediction will be led by local clergy, followed by comments from town selectmen and a reading of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The town’s annual parade will start at 5 p.m. along Whittemore Road. The procession will include marchers, sports leagues and fire department apparatus. All veterans are invited to participate.
NAUGATUCK
The Memorial Day parade will begin Monday at 9:15 a.m. Maj. Gen. Francis Evon, Afghanistan War veteran and adjutant general for the state, will be the grand marshal. The 142nd Medical Support Company, Connecticut National Guard, will lead the parade’s military contingents, joined by elements of the Second Battalion, 98th Division and the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion. There also will be a flyover, weather permitting, by a C-130 from the Connecticut Air National Guard 103rd Air-Lift Wing, based at Bradley International Airport.
Weather permitting, there also will be a low-level flyover by a World War II B-25 attack bomber, courtesy of the American Airpower Museum, Republic Air Force, Long Island, N.Y. Both flyovers will be guided over Church Street by radio controller Robert Tuckey, Naugatuck native and retired senior master sergeant.
PROSPECT
The annual Memorial Day parade will begin at 1 p.m. sharp on Monday on the Town Green on Center Street.
The parade heads past Town Hall on Route 69, turns onto Old Schoolhouse Road then onto Route 68. The parade then goes into Prospect Cemetery for a brief ceremony. Following the ceremony in the cemetery, another ceremony and wreath laying will be on the Green.
WATERBURY
The Waterbury Veterans Memorial Committee is continuing with its events this week leading up to Memorial Day.
The eight Vietnam War casualties from Waterbury will be honored by several Civil War re-enactors, with a full company volley salute, Saturday from 10 to 11 a.m. at Veterans Park on Thomaston Avenue, in the Waterville neighborhood.
The route will be Freight to Meadow Street to Grand Street to Bank Street to West Main Street, past the green then back to Meadow and Freight. Patriotic services will be at 2 p.m. on the Green.
WATERTOWN
The Watertown-Oakville Veterans Council will sponsor the annual Memorial Day Parade on Monday at 10 a.m.
Parade formation will be at the Watertown Plaza, 1141 Main St. (Route 63), with the line of march proceeding north on Main to the Bicentennial Gazebo at Veterans Hill and routes 63 and 6. A ceremony will take place immediately following the parade.
WOLCOTT
The Memorial Day parade will be Monday, starting at 6 p.m. at St. Pius X Church, 517 Woodtick Road, and ending about 6:30 p.m. at Woodtick Recreation Park, 201 Nichols Road.
Information provided through the Waterbury Republican American newspaper
Greater Waterbury CT Memorial Day Events 2019
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