Community day celebration honors veterans
“The land of the free and the home of the brave” are not just words that should be remembered on Memorial Day or Veterans Day.
That’s why Pottstown chose to show its support to veterans by honoring them in a special ceremony Saturday during Veterans Community Day.
Following welcoming remarks, three area veterans were awarded the Glass Tear Hero award. Those veterans included Captain Robert C. Boyce of the U.S. Navy, James Sharpless Galloway of the U.S. Army and Frank Strunk of the U.S. Air Force.
“Today we come together to honor the service and sacrifice of our nation’s finest and bravest. We find ourselves gathered here today to reflect on this one sentiment uttered many years ago by President John F. Kennedy. ‘As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.’ Words he believed were useless unaccompanied by action. That is why we, the many, gather here to honor our veterans, the few who were so willing to give of themselves for their country,” said Robert A. Mealand, the event’s guest speaker, following the distribution of awards.
The ceremony concluded with a rendition of “Amazing Grace” by Hamilton Celtic Pipe and Drums and the playing of “Taps.”
Veterans Community Day was started three years ago and serves as a fundraiser to help address the needs of Veterans Island in Memorial Park.
“We would like people to become aware that we have a great park here and that we’re trying to take one section of the park which we support to keep it dedicated to our veterans, hopefully upgrade it.” said Cathy Paretti, co-founder of the Veterans Island Project in Memorial Park. “It will be a long, long project but we hope people will come down, see what we’re trying to do. We’ll have plans in the new year for the WWII memorial to kind of finish it off and continue and make it a nice relaxing, respectful place for people to come after they’ve enjoyed a ballgame.”
The goal, says Paretti, is to have an organization working with the borough but financially independent of it, raising funds on its own to more quickly address the needs of the island.
Following Saturday’s ceremony, guests were invited to another area of the park to enjoy food and beverages offered for sale by Spring City American Legion Post 602.
To keep up to date on the changes, visit the Veterans Island Project Facebook page.