Memorial Day Parade, events canceled
POTTSTOWN » The annual Pottstown Memorial Day Parade, the ceremony at Memorial Park and placement of flags at veterans graves have all been canceled because of coronavirus restrictions, the Joint Veterans Council has announced.
There are no plans to reschedule the parade and the ceremony held at the Vietnam Memorial after the parade also will not take place this year.
And although the Joint Veterans Council has canceled placing flags on veterans graves for Memorial Day as well, there are tentative plans to place them on graves by July 4.
The flag placement was canceled due to a request by the Montgomery County Commissioners to the Montgomery County Veterans Affairs to hold off distributing the flags due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the JVC announcement, members “will be picking up our 2020 flag allotment on Friday, June 26, and hopefully, we will be able to get them placed on graves by July 4.”
The Pottstown JVC is responsible for approximately 5,000 flag placements in 15 local cemeteries.
The JVC is comprised of all the fraternal military organizations in the Pottstown Area.
• BG Elmer S. Friedberg American Legion Post 244, Sanatoga,
• George A. Amole American Legion Post 47, Pottstown
(merged into Post 244 in 2019),
• Thomas P. Kaas Sr. VFW Post 780, Pottstown,
• Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) Keystone Chapter 565, Pottstown,
• George Pron / Paul Seton Marine Corps League (MCL) Detachment 450, Spring City,
• Disabled American Veterans, Pottstown.
The Revolutionary Cemetery on Ellis Woods Road in East Coventry Township will be decorated with flowers and open to visitors throughout the Memorial Day holiday.
There will be no official ceremony as in past years due to the coronavirus pandemic but visitors are welcome in small groups to place their own flowers and remember these unknown soldiers and all soldiers in their own ways, according to organizers.