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Community Corner

Memorial Day Parade Engages Community While Honoring Veterans

This year's annual Memorial Day Parade brought out a large crowd of Summit's youth and veteran residents.

The sun was shining from the halls of City Hall to the shores of River Road as the annual Memorial Day Parade stepped off in the heart of Summit Monday morning.

The parade, which honored veterans in each branch of the military, began in the parking lot behind the Bouras Properties building and wound its way across DeForest Avenue and down Maple Street where a large crowd of Summit residents cheered and waved flags.

In addition to Summit's veterans, many youth groups and organizations, including the Brownies, Cub Scouts and the Daughters of the American Revolution, marched with banners and American flags in honor of the occasion.

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William Rapp, Co-Chair of the Memorial Day Committee said he was thrilled with the younger turnout in the parade.

"I think more and more we need to get the youth of our nation involved to remember and recognize all of our veterans," said Rapp. "This is probably going to be the largest parade we've had."

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Rapp, who is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1971, said the holiday allows for personal reflection.

"Memorial Day is probably one of my favorite holidays in the entire year," he said. "It helps me to again refocus on honoring all of our veterans. We're very lucky this year to have 16 unites that we know of that are going to be marching."

The parade culminated in a ceremony at the Showmobile on the Village Green.  Several hundred residents stood and sat in lawn chairs under the shade trees as members of the community participated in the memorial service. Highlights included an introductory speech of honored guests by Mayor Jordan Glatt, a presentation of Commander's Coins to all Veterans present at the event, and a Veterans Memorial Tribute by Commander Daniel A. Soldano of the United States Navy Reserves.

The ceremony also featured the musical talents of the Summit High School Band, who marched in the parade and provided the patriotic music for the ceremony. Musical selections included the National Anthem and the Armed Forces Medley. Drummers Jonathan Dugan and Michael Goldstein played the Drum Roll Salute and Trumpeters Peter McNally and Eric Vorchheimer played TAPS as the honored guests performed the laying of the wreaths.

Jonathan Dugan, a snare drummer who has played in the parade with Summit music ensembles for five years, said it's a lot of fun to participate in the event.

"It's good to see everyone giving their respect and the ceremony is really nice."

Dugan also said the parade inspired him to pay respect to the veterans in his own family.

"I'm actually going to call my grandpa later today," he said.

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