Memorial Day Parades and observances in the Willistons and Mineola will all take place on Monday, May 28.
In Williston Park, Memorial Day ceremonies start with a commemoration at American Legion Post 144, including invocations by Father Thomas Tassone, associate pastor at St. Aidan Church and a Naval reserve chaplain and Rev. Christina van Liew, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection.
The half-hour ceremony will include a 21-gun salute and a burning of the military discharge papers of post members who have died in the past year.
The keynote speaker will be state Sen. Jack Martins, according to Jack Alfonso, chairman of the post parade committee.
On Wednesday, members of the post planted flags on the graves of 150 members in Holy Rood Cemetery.
“It’s a symbol of our dedication to them. They gave their lives,” Alfonso said.
Village of Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar and the other village trustees will be in the line of march, along with members of Williston Park VFW Post 1688, Boy Scout Troops 200 and 201, the Williston Park Fire Department and the Mineola High School Marching Band.
The parade will move east on Syracuse Street, then south on Broad Street to HIllside Avenue. It will then move west to Park Avenue, then north to Center Street, and south on Willis Avenue to Village Hall.
Ehrbar and others will speak at Village Hall at approximately 10:30 a.m. and the parade will then proceed to the Williston Park Fire Department for the dedication of a statue to the memory of first responders who lost their lives in the World Trade Tower attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
An honor guard will then proceed to a Memorial Day ceremony at the East Williston War Memorial for placing of wreaths at noon on the Village Green with Village of East Williston Mayor David Tanner presiding. In case of rain, ceremonies will take place in the East Williston Fire Department.
Awards will also be given to the winners of the Memorial Day 5K race that kicks off at 8:30 from the Village Green that morning.
The East Williston parade steps off from the North Side School at 11:30 a.m. Members of the East Williston Fire Department and some veterans of the Williston Park VFW and American Legion posts will be marching and local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops will be participating.
The Mineola High School Marching Band will be doing double-duty on May 28, also in the line of march for the Mineola Memorial Day Parade, which steps off from Wilson Park at 11 a.m., proceeding west on Westbury Avenue, then north on Roslyn Road and west on Jericho Turnpike to Mineola Memorial Park.
The Chaminade Marching Band and the Chaminade Pipe Band will be in the line of march along with members of American Legion Post 349, the Portuguese Heritage Society, Portuguese Lions Club the Irish American Society and the Mineola Fire Department Band, according to parade chairperson Manny Grilo.
“Memorial Day is a time that we remember all those men and women who served for our country who are no longer with us and some who never came back,” said Grilo, a Vietnam veteran who is commander of Mineola VFW Post 1305. “We should never forget them and the service they’ve done.”
In case of rain, ceremonies will take place in Mineola Village Hall at 11 a.m.
