The Centre City Council has agreed to host a parade to salute all military veterans on Armed Forces Day Saturday, May 17.
David Hartline, vice commander, American Legion for the state of Alabama, made the request during the Tuesday, March 11 meeting of the council. Events are scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day.
“May 17 is recognized as Armed Forces Day,” said Hartline. “We would like to celebrate this year by having a parade and honor all the active duty reserves and the veterans along with their families. We would like to have a parade through town, pretty much like you have for Christmas and the Fall Festival parade. We would like to go on to the city park and have a cookout for the families and these veterans and also active duty servicemen and women. We are going to be seeking sponsors to fund this parade. The cookout will be free for everyone. And we have some people on board to do that but I really didn’t want to go too far along with it without your approval on the activities of that day.”
WEIS Radio Station, Hartline said, has agreed to carry the parade live as they usually do at the Fall Fest and also the Christmas Parade.
“In the city park, we thought we would set up an open mic for candidates seeking office this year and charge them a little donation to speak for two or three minutes,” said Hartline. “We haven’t nailed that yet. Those donations would go to help pay for the food.”
Refreshments would include hot dogs, chili and “all the trimmings” along with sweet tea or some kind of drinks. WEIS also agreed to play some patriotic music and put everybody in the mood of that day, Hartline said.
“I have already spoken to Wal Mart, Ingles and Piggly Wiggly and already mentioned it at different locations in town,” said Hartline. “It seems everybody is pretty much for that. We need some way to bond with these younger veterans and this would be a good way to do it.”
Currently, Cherokee County American Legion Post 62 has 82 members, Hartline said, and meets in the conference room of the Grid Iron Restaurant until the organization can get its own building again.
“We have some wonderful programs we are trying to support like sponsoring needy and disabled veterans,” said Hartline. “We pay their membership if they can’t afford to do so. Within that membership is a paid up life insurance policy. We have had two veterans to die recently without any insurance and the family didn’t have any means of burial. And they were forced to cremate them and spread the ashes and that wasn’t their first choice. I think for a veteran to die in that manner would be a little bit shameful for us veterans that are alive and doing well, so we are trying to sponsor that program as well.”
The council agreed to host the parade.
In a previous meeting, the council voted to host a 5K Run in memory of Former Police Chief Val Courtney and other deceased law enforcement agents.
Council Member Marc Johnson said he felt the parade was a good idea and also brought up the possibility of tying the two events together in the future.