L & A Veterans Council members organizing the event include (l. to r., from front) Advisor Bert Dutil, Franco-American Veterans Post 31; Secretary Helen Taylor, Amvets Auxiliary Post 6; Chairman Jerry Dewitt, DAV Chapter 11; Vice Chairman Norm Cote, American Legion Post 22; Treasurer Cecile Burgoyne, Amvets Post 6; Don Dube, Franco-American Veterans Post 31; Maurice Fournier, American Legion Post 153; Albert Landry and Normand Bussiere, VFW Post 9150; Jo Paradis, Military Order of the Purple Heart; Carl Douglas, VFW Post 1603; and Clair Poirier and Charley Paul, Marine Corps League. (Absent from the photo is Donald Gosselin, American Legion Post 135.)

The L & A Veterans Council will host a Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony on Saturday, May 26. The parade will start at 9:30 a.m. at Kennedy Park in Lewiston, will proceed to Auburn, and will return to Lewiston to end at Veterans Memorial Park on the corner of Lincoln and Main Streets, where the ceremony will begin around 10:30 a.m.

Invited to participate in the parade and ceremony, which will honor those who have given their lives for this country, are all Veterans Posts and their Color Guards (including Veterans Posts that aren’t members of the Council), along with groups representing all military branches, the National Guard and Reserves, ROTC, Civil Air Patrol, Young Marines, police, sheriff, and fire departments of any cities or towns, Knights of Columbus, Kora Shriners, Elks, Rotary, Eagles, D.A.R., and Boy and Girl Scouts. Such groups may participate with color guards, marching members, vehicles, floats, or horses.

The ceremony at 10:30 a.m. will open with the National Anthem, religious readings, remarks by the mayors of both Lewiston and Auburn, and music by Nel Meservier. This will be followed by a memorial service, including the placing of the wreath at the “Freedom Is Not Free” monument by Gold Star Mothers, three cannon shots by VFW Post 1603, Taps by Norm Bussiere, and a reading of the names of Veterans Post members who passed away this year. The event will conclude with the unveiling of the park’s 30th memorial stone, inscribed with 216 names and the emblem of the Gold Star Mothers. Please bring your own chairs.

Following the ceremony, members of the L & A Veterans Council will be on hand with alphabetized lists of the names inscribed on all the monuments to help those attending find the names of their loved ones. For more information, call Bert Dutil at 786-2305.