Waterloo’s Celebrate Commemorate Parade

It’s time to honor our Middle Eastern Wars vets in this year’s Celebrate Commemorate parade on Saturday, May 23. Lineup will be at 10:30 am. The parade will step out promptly at 11 am for the march from Clark Street down Main Street to Lafayette Park. Romulus Scouts, led by Becky Jessup, will create a special float for vets to ride. Vets also may march, or come on motorcycles. Those who want to drive their own cars must have at least three people in the vehicle. Following the parade, Vets will be hosted at a buffet lunch at the VFW. RSVP is needed to allow the VFW to plan for enough food.` Groups that have been in the parade before know what fun it can be. Once again, there will be divisions for military and officials; youth organizations; schools and families; churches, seniors and organizations; and vehicles. The Civil War and American Revolutionary War groups will have a “parade within a parade.”Posters will indicate where groups should line up. Briefly, Group 1, officials, will be on Clark Street to Main; Group 2, Civil War and other military reenactor groups, East Williams Street west; Group 3, Youth organizations, East Williams Street east; Group 4, organizations and churches, Elisha Street east and Group 5, vehicles and businesses, Elisha Street west. Special “dignitaries” in this year’s parade will include three past US Presidents – President Teddy Roosevelt, President Abe Lincoln, and President and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant. And the very popular Hit Men will return to the lineup this year. This is the last parade before the BIG one, the 150th anniversary of the first Memorial Day. Organizers Kaaren Gerlach and Doris Wolf already are planning to make that parade spectacular! “Consider this year’s parade a dress rehearsal and be thinking about what your group can do to make your participation even more spectacular,” said Gerlach.Anyone who would like to be in the family fun parade should contact Gerlach at, 315-539-2927 or 315-651-7726 or Wolf, 1229 Birdsey Road, Waterloo 539-8302 or 315-246-7580 [email protected] Everyone is welcome! The 16th annual Celebrate Commemorate event will be held May 22 through 25 in Waterloo, the Birthplace of Memorial Day. For more information about the events, go to www.waterloony.com.The 149th consecutive commemoration of Memorial Day will be on Friday, May 30. It will include prayer services, and the official Memorial Day parade at 6 pm.