Welcome to another week! I hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend. I had the chance to attend the Jamestown Memorial Day Parade, as well as the Park Lawn Cemetery and Rocky Glen Cemetery services.
Before the Jamestown Memorial Day parade began, the Jamestown High School Marching Band played patriotic songs at the Veterans’ Memorial downtown. Then the band, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5424 color guard, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and motor cyclists proceeded to the cemetery. Mayor Esther McClimans rode in a Jamestown Volunteer Fire Department truck to Park Lawn.
The parade halted while the VFW color guard fired a 21-gun salute at the Staff Sergeant David M. Veverka Veterans Memorial Bridge. Two Girl Scouts threw a floral wreath into the Shenango River in honor of our military dead.
VFW Commander Larry Onder-ko gave the keynote address. Girl Scouts laid red, white, or blue carnations in honor of fallen soldiers from every American war, from the Revolutionary War through the current war in Afghanistan. At the closing of the service, the VFW color guard gave another 21-gun salute in honor of our fallen heroes at the Dr. William Gibson Memorial.
There are 443 veterans buried at Park Lawn. Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Girl Scouts placed flags on veterans’ graves on Saturday, May 16. The VFW Ladies’ Auxiliary served doughnuts, chocolate milk, and coffee afterward at VFW Post 5424.
The Atlantic Grange 344 and Odd Fellows Lodge 1128 hosted a Memorial Day service at Rocky Glen Cemetery. The Reverend Harry Johns, III, was the keynote speaker. Reverend Johns is the current pastor at Adamsville Presbyterian Church.
Double Vision Band, featuring Sheryl and Sherry Horne, sang The Statler Brothers’ “More Than a Name on the Wall” and “Go Rest High on that Mountain,” by Vince Gill. I cried my eyes out.
Operation Desert Storm Air For-ce veteran Dale Shearer led a procession around the cemetery while members of the Atlantic International Order of Odd Fellows Lodge laid fresh-cut rhododendrons, sweet rockets, and lilacs on veterans’ graves. Your reporter closed the service by playing “Taps.”
Fallowfield United Methodist Women celebrated May birthdays with Wesbury residents on Tuesday, May 26. Children from the church sang “I’ve Got Peace Like a River,” “I’ve Got the Joy,” “In the Highways,” and “I’m Gonna Sing When the Spirit Says Sing” to residents. I wanna tell you, the kids sang their hearts out. The residents just beamed while the kids sang.
The UMW served homemade pies, including elderberry, coconut cream, lemon meringue, strawberry-rhubarb, and Dutch apple. Two residents told me they loved the pie. One had elderberry and reminisced with me about how hard it is to find, pick, and freeze elderberries. It’s a chore, no doubt about it. But the joy on her face reminds me why we continue to make elderberry pies every year for the Crawford County Fair.
The kids made crafts in Sunday school for all residents who attended the party. The residents beamed and thanked the kids when they distributed the gifts. Several residents thanked the UMW for the crafts, too. I think the kids made these precious folks feel pretty special that night.
If you’ve got time to see something spectacular this week, take a drive up to Greendale Cemetery on Randolph Street in Meadville. There must be at least 200 rhododendrons in shades of pink, purple, white, and magenta. It’s gorgeous and well worth the trip.
Have a wonderful week. Blessings!