Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories

Planning Memorial Day in Lewiston

Sat, Mar 2nd 2019 07:00 am

Lewiston’s Memorial Day Remembrance Committee Inc. announced plans are underway for the 2019 Memorial Day celebration of the lives of those who died defending this nation.

This year’s celebration will take place at noon on Monday, May 27, inside Academy Park. The Memorial Day parade will step off at 11 a.m. from Fourth and Center streets. Following a remembrance ceremony, a community luncheon will begin at about 1 p.m. under a tent on the park grounds.

Chairman Norm Machelor is shown with the postage needed for invitations to parade participants and event donors. He ordered “Medal of Honor” stamps from the U.S. Postal Service, which happened to arrive as four large sheets of “Forever” stamps.

“I hated to have to use them, they were so beautiful all together,” Machelor said. “So, I decided to take a picture of them while they remained together.”

On the reverse of each page, the names of all 258 soldiers are listed – sailors and airmen who received the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. The likenesses on the sheets are of Medal of Honor winners who survived the war and agreed to appear along with the stamps. Machelor said the 244 “Forever” stamps shown are a few short of the number of Congressional Medal of Honor recipients during the war, but nonetheless provide a visual representation of these heroes.

Machelor noted his classmate, Niagara Falls native and Medal of Honor recipient John Bobo, is among those who died defending this country.

The Memorial Day committee has used Medal of Honor stamps each year. However, the stamps representing World War II Medal winners are no longer available and, unfortunately, the Postal Service told the committee members the Vietnam War stamps “could be discontinued at any time.”

Machelor said invitations to march or enter a unit in the parade, as well as solicitations for donations, have been mailed.

Lewiston’s Memorial Day Remembrance Committee is a 501(c)(3) organization. It is the only local group officially raising funds for the parade, remembrance ceremony and community luncheon. The meal is provided free for all guests courtesy of The Brickyard Pub & B.B.Q./Brickyard Brewing Co. Hibbard’s Original Frozen Custard will provide dessert.

For more information, contact Lewiston’s Memorial Day Remembrance Committee at 716-866-6880.

Hometown News

View All News