Parades set for Thursday
Green Island, Cohoes eye events
A couple local communities will celebrate Memorial Day early, with Memorial Day parades planned for Thursday night.
On Thursday night, the village of Green Island will host its community Memorial Day parade at 6 p.m., with lineup starting at 5:30 p.m. on Hudson Avenue.
Village officials said this year’s Grand Marshals will be World War II veterans and the remaining members of the Last Man’s Club- Edward Boudreau and Albert Valenty.
The village parade is scheduled to start right outside of the village municipal building on George Street with a quick prayer service taking place at the World War I monument. The parade will then go a block up to the Vietnam War memorial for another short prayer service, and then the parade will continue north on George Street. The parade will turn left onto Arch Street and then right onto Cohoes Avenue, with the parade ending at the legion post.
Green Island Mayor Ellen McNulty-Ryan said she always looks forward to the annual Memorial Day parade since it’s a way for her and her family to also remember her late brother who served in the military.
“It’s a very personal thing for me, I lost a brother in Vietnam in 1970, so it means a lot to me and it means a lot that people take the time to stop and remember the sacrifices that men and women have made for our freedom,” said McNulty-Ryan. “It means a lot to me that my brother is remembered every year.”
Also on Thursday, the city of Cohoes and the Cohoes American Legion will host its community Memorial Day parade beginning at 7 p.m. The lineup begins at 6:30 p.m.
City officials said the parade will commence at the city’s newly renovated Veterans Memorial Park on Columbia Street with the parade then moving east along Columbia Street and then north along Remsen Street to Canal Square and finish at the review stand.
City officials said this year’s Grand Marshal is Sgt.
Allen Aubin.
Aubin was born and educated in Cohoes. He enlisted in the U. S. Army in September 1964. He served in France and Germany until May 1966. Aubin served in Vietnam as a Machine Gunner with the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry and 1st Infantry Division. He was wounded in combat in October 1966, hospitalized in Japan and later transferred to the St. Alban’s Naval Hospital, then to Queens and then the VA hospital in Albany.
Aubin received the Purple Heart Medal and was discharged in September 1967.
Aubin joined the Cohoes Fire Department in May
1969 and served 32 years until retirement in May 2001. He then worked as Chief Fire Marshall for the New York Racing Association at the Saratoga Race Course for 12 years.
The city of Cohoes will also be honoring Adam Hytko, William O’Connor and Ronald O’Connor, who has served the country, with the Colonel Robert R. Craner Service Medal Award. The medal will be presented by Cohoes Mayor Shawn Morse at Canal Square immediately following the parade.
“I’m really excited for people to see the park and pay their respects to our military and our veterans,” Morse said.