New Hyde Park Veterans of Foreign Wars G&E Linder Post no. 8031 and the Village of New Hyde Park are sponsoring the annual Memorial Day Parade in the village, which steps off from Hillside Boulevard at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
The parade will proceed east along Jericho Turnpike until it reaches the village green in front of Village Hall, where a War Memorial with the names of the 54 war dead from New Hyde Park stands.
An eight-minute ceremony will ensue as the parade pauses. Members of Gold Star families who have family members currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will be in attendance, according to William Hothan, spokesman for VFW Post 8031. A 21-gun salute will be fire to honor those Americans who have fallen in battle for their country.
After the ceremony, the line of march will proceed north on New Hyde Park Road to Lincoln Avenue, where it will turn west to reach parade’s end in New Hyde Park Memorial Park, where several local politicians will offer their thoughts about the day.
New Hyde Park Mayor Daniel Petruccio will be the master of ceremonies at the Memorial Park program, which is expected to begin at 11 a.m.
Members of G&E Linder Post no. 8031 and American Legion Post no. 1089 will lead the line of march along with grand marshal Mike Dolan, who earned two Purple Hearts in the Vietnam War and is a commissioner in the New Hyde Park Fire Department.
The award-winning New Hyde Park Fire Department Marching Band will be marching along with many members of the village’s volunteer firefirefighters. The department’s vehicles will also be in the parade.
“They’ve been best marching unit for the past 10 years,” said Willilam Hothan, adjutant of the G&E Linder Post.
The post is named in honor of Gerald and Eugene Linder, who were both killed in Europe during World War II.
The New Hyde Park chapters of the Knights of Columbus, Elks Lodge, the Kiwanis, North NHP Lions CLub, the Sons of Italy Cellini Lodge and the New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce are all expected to be present.
The 54 flags posted on electric poles along Jericho Turnpike – representing New Hyde Park’s 54 fallen servicemen – were paid for by the Chamber of Commerce, according to Mark Laytin, first vice president of the Chamber.
The New Hyde Park Memorial Marching Band and the band from the Hillside and New Hyde Park Road Schools will also be performing.
The Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts of America will be well represented, with boy scout troops from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Holy Spirit Church and Notre Dame Church represented along with a local Girl Scout troop, a Brownie troop and a Cub Scout Pack 489.
The commemoration on Memorial Day was originally intended to honor the dead of the Civil War, but evolved into an observance of all the nation’s war dead over the past century.
“We have only one theme, and that’s to honor and remember our war dead,” Hothan said.
