Concord Veterans Council Cancels Memorial Day Parade Again

CONCORD, NH — For the second year in a row, Concord will not be memorializing its fallen service members with a parade due to coronavirus.

Paul Lloyd of the Concord Veterans Council said the committee, while consulting others, came to the conclusion that it would be put off another year.

"We just don't think right now with the social distancing and the masks as well as no high school bands that we could hold a respectful parade," he said. "We're going to stick with laying wreaths and regroup for 2022."

Lloyd said music directors from local school districts told the council the high school bands were not going to be able to attend earlier this year; some have not performed or been practicing together, he noted. While it was important to honor veterans, without the bands, it would not be very festive.

There are other ways to memorialize those who have served. Sixteen wreaths will be laid around the city — including at the veterans memorial at the Statehouse, the VFW Hall, American Legion, the Concord Airport, Blossom Hill, North, Maple Grove, and Josiah Bartlett cemeteries as well as memorials on Court Street, Pembroke Road and Loudon Road, the nurse's memorial near the federal courthouse, and one on South Street near Rundlett Middle School. They will be in place before the holiday, Lloyd said. The city provided the council with money for flags and wreaths. Last year, the group purchased artificial wreaths since the real ones had become quite expensive to by each year.

"We spruce them up every year, so they look nice," he said.

Lloyd said the state veterans cemetery in Boscawen will be hosting an event at 6 p.m. on May 30 while the new Vietnam Veterans memorial, at Veterans Park in Manchester, would also be unveiled that week.

Attendance at the parade has waned over the years but, some years, if the weather is nice, a decent crowd will show up. But certainly not like days of yore. Lloyd said lack of military service, as well as Memorial Day Weekend, being the "unofficial start of summer," were reasons for the decline in attendance.

"Overall, we have less than 1 percent of the population serving in the military," he said, noting that in prior wars, "the participation percentage was way higher. We have a smaller number of people who are actually participating and being touched by someone serving or who has served."

Lloyd added, "I don't think people are being disrespectful; it's just not in the front of their thinking ... I think it's more about a three-day weekend. And it's terrible to say that but that's the reality of it."

Scholarship Available

The Veterans of Foreign Wars 2021-2022 Voice of Democracy scholarship contest is underway. The national first-place winner receives a $30,000 scholarship while each state winner receives $1,000.

The annual audio-essay contest is open to students in ninth to 12th grade. Entrants write and record a 3- to 5-minute script on the topic. This year's theme is "America: Where Do We Go From Here?" The deadline is Oct. 31. Lloyd noted there is plenty of time and opportunity for students to compete for the scholarship.

For more information, visit this link.

Winners For 2020-2021 Announced

The winners for the 2020-2021 school year were announced last month.

Taking the top national prize was Erin Stoeckig, a high school junior from Mayo High School in Rochester, Minnesota, who offered a speech on the theme, "Is This the Country the Founders Envisioned?"

Matthew Blair, a junior at Central High School in Manchester, won a $10,000 scholarship after placing third in the contest. He was sponsored by VFW Post 8214 in Manchester.

"Despite the challenges the pandemic presented, we weren't going to let it stop us from celebrating this momentous occasion," VFW National Commander Hal Roesch said in a statement announcing the winners. "Tonight the VFW was proud to present our nation's best and brightest students with more than $208,000 in scholarship and awards, making a grand total of nearly $2.7 million presented at the national, state, and local levels of our competitions."

The parade of virtual winners can be found here on Facebook.

More than 28,000 students submitted entries for the 2020-2021 school year. The VFW awarded $154,000 in scholarships.

One other thing the VFW did to honor veterans was to donate a prisoner of war chair to Concord City Hall in August 2019.

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