Memorial Day Parade Draws Thousands

Thousands of residents turned out this morning for one of the state's largest Memorial Day Parades to honor fallen veterans and to watch hundreds of veterans, children and adults march down Old Post Road accompanied by floats, classic cars, school bands and a booming cannon from the Ancient Mariners Fife & Drum Band.

"Plug your ears for this one," Dave Hogarth, the parade's master of ceremonies, said when he spotted the Ancient Mariners approaching the reviewing stand in front of the Town Green about 10:20 a.m.

After a loud cannon blast, Hogarth said, "I warned you!"

Al Levy, who was on the south side of the Old Post Road with his wife, Roseanne, and their 18-month-old black lab, Pericles, said the parade was "fantastic."

"The whole community comes out, and it's a fantastic event," Levy said. "There's a lot of community feeling here. That's the beauty of it."

Janet Almeida, who watched the parade with her grandson, Tanner Thomas, 3, said she loves coming to Fairfield's parade. "I love the bands and I love the cars, the little Shriners' cars...I like the Gaelic Club, the bagpipers," she said.

Almeida said she used to come to the parade with her two older grandsons, Jake Thomas, 7, and Derek Thomas, 5, but they were marching in a Memorial Day Parade in Glastonbury today.

Almeida said she would go to the parade in Glastonbury after Tanner is old enough to march in it because all of her grandsons would then be in the Glastonbury parade. "This will probably be the last one, but maybe he'll come out next year," she said of Tanner.

Terry Dunn, a longtime employee in the town's Sewer Department who retired several years ago and who's watched Fairfield's parade for about 50 years, said the local parade was always well attended. "It makes you so proud to be a Fairfielder and so proud of all our veterans," she said. "I love it and I do to it to honor our servicemen. That's very important."

"It's the best parade in the country, and I'm not at all biased," Dunn added with a smile.

Jackie Dunn Mulroy, Terry's daughter, grew up in Fairfield and now lives in Woodridge, N.J., but she comes back to Fairfield for the Memorial Day Parade and said it's like a "mini-reunion" because she runs into classmates from Roger Ludlowe High School in the 1980s.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, which is along the parade route, served its annual breakfast of pancakes and sausage for passersby. Proceeds from the breakfast benefited Wheels of Hope in Bridgeport, which provides new bicycles to foster children at Christmas, and Holy Trinity School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was destroyed in a January earthquake and needs to be rebuilt.

"I'd say it looks like a good turnout. People are drinking less coffee because it's hot out, but they're eating more pancakes," said Matt Wiant, who was flipping pancakes outside by the church. "We serve a couple of thousand plates of pancakes; that's where we end up. It's the best breakfast in town on Memorial Day and has been for 50 years."

Today's Memorial Day Parade featured three divisions - Red First Division, White Second Division and Blue Third Division - and each division had from 17 to 28 groups.

The parade was led by a Fairfield Police escort radio car; the Fairfield Police Benefit Association Honor Guard; Fairfield Ludlowe High School's band; Joseph Lebinski, the parade chairman and commander of American Legion Post 74; Town Clerk Betsy P. Browne, who was the parade secretary; parade marshals Simon Welden, from George A. Smith Post 74 of the American Legion, Sidney Wilson, from Lt. Owen Fish Post 143 of the American Legion, Alvin Overton, from Disabled American Veterans Fairfield Chapter 19, and Milton Forstrom, from Sgt. Thomas Nelson Post 9427 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; and the town's Board of Selectmen: First Selectman Ken Flatto, Selectman Sherri Steeneck and Selectman James Walsh.

Following the parade, a ceremony was held on the Town Green in which speakers talked about the true meaning of Memorial Day and members of Fairfield Warde High School's band performed God Bless America and Taps.

Frank E. Wismer III, a retired senior U.S. Army reserve Episcopal chaplain, said Memorial Day was often thought of as a time for cookouts, sales in stores and parades, which he said was fine, but he said the best way to honor veterans is to serve others.

"Central to the core values of the U.S. military is the concept of service," Wismer said, adding that the most appropriate response to self-sacrifice is self-sacrifice and for residents to live their lives in a way that reflects the values of fallen veterans.

"Become the people who cheerfully serve those we encounter. Live our lives in a way that reflects the values we hold dear," Wismer said. "We've got to bring more to the table of democracy than just our appetites."

Monsignor Blase Gintoli, from Our Lady of the Assumption Church on Stratfield Road, said, "There would be no parades and backyard barbecues and festive occasions without the sacrifices of our servicemen and women."