White Chapel Cemetery To Host Memorial Day Celebration

TROY, MI – White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery will host a concert and memorial this weekend to commemorate Memorial Day. The Memorial Day Celebration Concert at 3 p.m., Sunday, features a program of patriotic songs performed by The Birmingham Concert Band with conductor Jeffrey Jones.

At 11 a.m., Monday, White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery will host the 89th Annual WWI Polar Bear Memorial Service featuring a military flyover.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of when the Polar Bears went and fought in battle. The Polar Bear Expedition was a contingent of about 5,000 U.S. troops from the 85th Division, 339th infantry mostly from Michigan, who landed in Arkhangelsk, Russia and fought the Bolshevik forces in the surrounding region during the period of September 1918 through July 1919.

An expedition under the auspices of the Veterans of Foreign Wars was successful in organizing and conducting a recovery mission in the autumn of 1929 that found, identified and brought out the remains of 86 U.S. soldiers. Another dozen remains of Polar Bear soldiers were shipped by the Soviet Union to the U.S. in 1934, which reduced the number of U.S soldiers still buried in North Russia to about 30. The remains of 56 Polar Bear soldiers were eventually re-buried at White Chapel Memorial Cemetery surrounding the Polar Bear Monument by sculptor Leon Hermant.

“The men and women in the military are heroes and Memorial Day weekend is a special weekend to remember and honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country,” said David R. Krall, Vice President, White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery.

The boulevard into the park will be lined with more than 400 American flags and leading to the memorials in honor of WWI, WWII, Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf War Veterans, as well as a POW/MIA memorial, will welcome visitors to White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery.

White Chapel Memorial Park Cemetery is located at 621 W. Long Lake Road (just West of I-75) in Troy. For more information, visit WhiteChapelCemetery.com.

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