MEMORIAL DAY Boardman to celebrate with 100th parade

Organizers are expecting a large turnout..
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- This year's Memorial Day parade, the township's 100th, will begin at 10 a.m. Monday, leaving from Center Middle School on Market Street.
The parade will move down Market Street, then east on U.S. Route 224 into Boardman Township Park's Maag Outdoor Theater.
Memorial Day was officially recognized in May 1868. Much of the early history of the parade has been lost to time, but George Grim, parade coordinator, said it was started in 1904 by someone in the school district. The schools kept the parade going for many years.
The Kiwanis Club of Boardman was formed in 1947 and assumed responsibility for the parade, Grim said. The parade is now a combined effort of the Kiwanis, township trustees and school district.
The parade has also greatly benefited in the last three decades from the personal dedication of a few people, Grim said.
From the early 1970s to the early 1980s, Paul Luke was the parade's coordinator. John Finley was parade coordinator from 1986 until 2002, when Grim took over the task.
Why he does it
Grim said a pure sense of patriotism and thankfulness to the country's veterans for the liberties and freedoms enjoyed here is why he and other parade coordinators have done the job.
Grim said this year's parade will include several World War II veterans riding in golf carts. He said having the WWII veterans participate is particularly special. In 2001, it was estimated that these veterans are dying at a rate of more than 1,100 a day.
A military flyover is scheduled for between 10:15 and 10:30 a.m. by a jet from an Air Force base in Georgia.
Township police and firefighters, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Camp Fire members and car clubs are among parade participants. Candy will be passed out to children.
Morris Ray, Gulf War veteran and WKBN radio personality, will be grand marshal and speaker. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Bill Moss will lay a wreath in honor of deceased veterans. Mark Luke will be master of ceremonies.
In case of rain
If it rains, services will be in the Boardman Center Middle School auditorium.
There will be a breakfast sponsored by the Kiwanis Club before the parade at 8 a.m. at Boardman Community Center in Boardman Park.
Grim said the largest turnout for the parade was 8,000 people in 1976 during the nation's bicentennial celebration, but he expects to at least match that number this year. He said Americans are exhibiting a renewed sense of patriotism.
"Last year I noticed a lot of people who had not come out before, and I expect even more this year," he said.
"I look at people along the parade route and I see people -- little kids -- holding flags. The way they cheer for anything military in the parade leads me to believe patriotism is the highest it has been in years."
jgoodwin@vindy.com