By Brenda Erdahl:
Maple Lake’s American Legion Post 131 and the VFW Post 7664 will present the annual Memorial Day program in Maple Lake’s Community Park on May 28, it will also be last service Commander Gary Jude will preside over before his retirement. After 25 years organizing the program, the new commander, Randy Mavencamp will be taking over those duties as of next spring.
Memorial Day, not to be confused with Veterans Day, is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving the county. Veteran’s Day, on the other hand, celebrates the service of all U. S. military veterans.
The morning’s event will begin with a parade of the Legion and VFW color guards and other units at 10 a.m. The procession will march from the American Legion to the Community Park on Division Street where a service in remembrance of fallen comrades will take place near the veteran’s memorial.
The program which will include music by the Maple Lake High School Marching Band, a prayer by Pastor Culynn Curtis and recitations by Megan Otto, the Girls State representative, and Kenneth Nyquist a Maple Lake Eagle Scout. The featured speaker will be Lt. Col. Jill Jensen of Foley. Jensen currently is serving as an Equal Opportunity Advisor for the 341D Army National Guard at Rosemount. She is a Nurse Practitioner working at the Meeker Memorial Hospital in Litchfield. She was deployed for a tour of duty to Iraq and Kosovo and had active duty status in Washington, Georgia and Kansas.
Charles Stoppelman will read a list of servicemen and women killed in action, and Tom Mooney will read the names of veterans who have passed away since the 2017 Memorial Day. There will be a pot-luck dinner at the Legion hall at 11:30 a.m. following the program. Those units marching are reminded lineup is at 9:30 a.m.
Be the first to comment