VETERANS DAY Local events

Run-down of local Veterans Day events.
MAHONING
Austintown: Austintown Fitch High School will have its annual Veterans Day Assembly on Monday at 9 a.m. in the school auditorium. The Fitch Concert Choir and band will perform, and a reception for veterans will follow at 10 a.m. Faculty and staff veterans will be recognized. Bruce Montgomery is chairman of the event.
Main speaker is retired Army Capt. Philip P. Henderson Jr., originally of Titusville, Pa., now living in Louisville, Ky. He excelled in track and football in high school and at Allegheny College, from which he graduated in 1983. He served in the Army from 1984 to 1991 and is now regional manager of the commercial financial document printing division of Clarke American.
Greenford: South Range Middle School fifth-grade pupils invite all veterans to attend a program in their honor on Monday at 11 a.m. Veterans will receive a memento handmade by the pupils. Community members are also invited.
Youngstown: The United Veterans Council of Youngstown's Veterans Day program will be at 10:45 a.m. Monday at the Mahoning County Courthouse in downtown Youngstown. Guest speaker at the courthouse is Robert Thornton, World War II veteran and past national director of American Ex-Prisoners of War and the past commander of the state organization. Thornton and UVC Commander Lloyd A. Edwards will place a wreath.
The assembly will move to the Man on the Monument, where Joseph Vrable, 1st vice commander of the Ohio American Legion, will speak. Vrable, Thornton, J.P. Brown III, Edwards and Ray Ornelas, VFW district commander, will place a wreath at the monument. George Bodnar and Joe Pavlov will play taps. The 37th Division Veterans Association will post colors at the courthouse, provide rifle salutes and host an open house for veterans and their spouses from 1-4 p.m. at VFW Post 3538, Lowellville Road, Struthers. The cost is $1.
VFW Donald Lockett Post 6488 and its ladies auxiliary will have their annual Veterans Day Luncheon on Monday at the post at 2065 Coitsville-Hubbard Road.
Youngstown Police Chief Robert E. Bush Jr. is the main speaker for the program, which begins at 10:30 a.m. Lunch is at noon.
Bush is a former Youngstown law director, Postal Service inspector and Youngstown Police Department patrolman and detective. He served four years in the Marine Corps, where he was a helicopter crew chief and gunner in Vietnam. He received two Purple Hearts, 17 Air Medals, the Navy Commendation Medal for valor in combat, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, among other service awards and ribbons.
Henry Clarett and Toney Feldes will place a wreath at the flagpole. Morris Tucker is Post 6488 commander, and Sandra Graves is president of the 6488 Auxiliary.
The fourth annual Program of Forgotten Heroes is at 2 p.m. Sunday at Tod Cemetery, 2200 Belmont Ave. The program, open to the public, honors Civil War dead.
The Mahoning County Bar Association will honor members who are Armed Services veterans in a ceremony at 11 a.m. Friday in the rotunda of the Mahoning County Courthouse, 120 Market St. A representative of the Air Force Reserve JAG Corps will speak. Call (330) 746-2933 for more information.
TRUMBULL
Bristolville: Bristol schools will conduct an assembly in honor of veterans at 9 a.m. Friday in the Bristol Middle School gymnasium, 1845 Greenville Road N.W.
Guest speakers will be Army Maj. Robert Sines, who served three tours in the Vietnam War and is a professor at Kent State University-Trumbull, and Army Sgt. Robert H. Brothers, who fought in 10 major battles in the Korean War.
Honorees will be members of VFW Post 7200 and its auxiliary of West Farmington, the Women's Relief Corps, Grand Army of the Republic Hall Corps 104, and members of the 910th Tactical Airlift Wing at Youngstown Air Reserve Station.
The high school band and middle and high school choirs will give patriotic performances.
Also, VFW Post 7200 and Korean War Veterans Association Chapter 137 will certify and dedicate the Bristol High School and the surrounding community as a Korean War 50th Anniversary Commemorative Partner.
Warren: The W.D. Packard Concert Band, under the direction of Robert E. Fleming, will present its Veterans Day Salute at 3 p.m. Sunday at W.D. Packard Music Hall, 1703 Mahoning N.W. Leonard Suzelis, guest vocalist, will perform "The Star Spangled Banner," "God Bless America," "Let There Be Peace On Earth," and "God Bless the U.S.A."
The band performs a variety of patriotic music, and will recognize all veterans during the performance of the "Armed Forces Salute." John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" will close the program. The concert is free and open to the public.
Newton Falls: Newton Falls High School will have its celebration from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Monday at the high school auditorium. The ceremony will include student patriotic readings, music and singing by the school choir.
Niles: William McKinley American Legion Post 106 will sponsor Veterans Day services at 11 a.m. Monday at the Niles City Cemetery, at state Route 46 and Vienna Road.
Commander Tom Bloomquest will lead the ceremony, and Col. Charles M. Coleman of the Ohio Army National Guard will be the guest speaker.
Also participating in the ceremony are the Niles McKinley High School band and the Army-Navy Garrison Firing Squad.
Brunch will be served at the Legion Hall, at Margaret and Main streets, after the service.
COLUMBIANA
Lisbon: McKinley Elementary School's 4th annual Veterans Day breakfast will be at 8:30 a.m. Friday at the school, 441 E. Chestnut St. Lisbon-area veterans are invited to the event, sponsored by the fifth-grade pupils, teachers and the cafeteria staff. There were 238 veterans, pupils and guests at the 2001 breakfast.
LAWRENCE
New Wilmington, Pa.: Westminster College will hostMary Sigillo Barraco, World War II heroine, at its Veterans Day Celebration at 9:30 a.m. Monday in Orr Auditorium.
Barraco, who has often been referred to as "Speaker of Freedom" or "Torchbearer of Freedom," was born in the United States but moved to her mother's native country of Belgium when she was 7, where her mother worked with several Jewish salesmen.
After the Germans invaded Belgium in 1940, her family sheltered many Jewish families. In 1941, Barraco joined the Belgian Resistance as an operative. In 1943, while working with the French underground, she was betrayed, and the Gestapo took Barraco and her fianc & eacute;, Arthur Libre, captive.
Libre was executed, and Barraco was sentenced to 16 months in prison. She was moved to several prisons including "347 Avenue Louise," Gestapo torture headquarters, where she was interrogated and tortured with beatings and experiments. They tried everything to break her spirit.
Through her faith in God, she prevailed, and she was released six months later.She resumed her duties with the Belgian Resistance, served until the end of the war, and achieved the rank of captain.
Included in the patriotic program will be comments from Leonard Carroll, chairman of the Westminster College Board of Trustees; R. Thomas Williamson, Westminster president; the Rev. Steve Allen, chaplain; and Christopher Nave, student government president.
The program also includes: The 107th Field Artillery, presenting the colors; the Westminster College Band, playing the National Anthem; and the Westminster College Concert Choir singing "America the Beautiful.
The event is free. For more information, contact (724) 946-7190.
New Castle, Pa.: Lawrence County Veterans Council will host its annual Veterans Day celebration at 11 a.m. with a parade downtown. A dinner will follow at St. John's Hall on Pearson Street. Retired Major Jack Marshall of Union Township will be the keynote speaker. To purchase tickets, call (724) 657-8904.