Islanders celebrate Memorial Day
Posted May 24, 2007
Memorial Day weekend observances will include the traditional parade to the sea by school children in Edgartown and Tisbury and ceremonies at the Oak Grove cemetery in Tisbury, conducted by Island veterans groups.
The weekend ceremonies begin on Friday. Veterans will speak to Oak Bluffs students about their experiences and the sacrifices of their comrades at 8:30 am.
Weather permitting, students in all grades will depart the Tisbury School at 12:30 pm for their traditional march down Spring Street and up Main Street and down to Owen Park beach where they will throw bouquets of flowers into the water.
The children will then gather around the flag pole for the singing of the national anthem. The ceremony ends with the playing of taps.
In a similar ceremony, Edgartown School children will leave their school at 1 pm and march down Main Street to Memorial Wharf on Edgartown harbor.
Photo by Alan Brigish
On Monday, Memorial Day, American Legion Posts 257 and 186 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9261 will honor the country's war dead. The veterans will depart Post 257 opposite the Tisbury School at 9:30 am and march to the nearby Oak Grove cemetery for a brief ceremony. Richard Earley, Veterans Service officer from the Veteran's Administration Regional office in Providence, will speak. The marchers will also dedicate a newly placed monument honoring four Island servicemen killed in Vietnam.
Weather permitting, a helicopter from Otis Air National Guard will fly over the ceremony.
The American Legion is asking for help to set and take down 400 flags in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Vineyard Haven on Memorial Day. The flags will be put up at 7:30 am taken down at 3 pm.
