Annual Dacula Memorial Day Parade Honors Fallen Service Members

UPDATE: Due to thunderstorms/lightning in the area this morning, the Memorial Day parade has been cancelled. This is for the safety of all participants, volunteers and the people who come to watch the parade, parade officials said.

For three decades, Marvin Atherton has made it his mission to ensure men and women who died while serving their country are not forgotten on Memorial Day.

As the organizer of the Dacula Memorial Day Parade, Atherton finds a grand marshal and signs up participants — which these days averages around 80 to 90 individuals and groups — for the event. On the day of the parade, he makes sure he explains the meaning of Memorial Day for attendees, particularly kids, before the festivities kick off.

He is quick to point out that, while Memorial Day and Veterans Day both honor people who have served in the military, they are intended to recognize two different groups of service members.

One recognizes current and former service members who are still alive. The other honors service members who have died.

“So many people get Veterans Day and Memorial Day all mixed up,” Atherton told the Daily Post. “The focus on Memorial Day is for those who died.

“I’ve always tried to instill that and talk to the kids when I do my commentary because it’s the kids that don’t know this stuff.”

Atherton will get another chance to highlight the meaning of the day when the 31st Dacula Memorial Day Parade is held at 10 a.m. on Monday.

The parade will begin at Hebron Baptist Church and come up Hebron Church Road to Dacula High School and continue on Second Avenue. It will then turn left Wilson Street and then take another left onto Dacula Road and come down that road to Hebron Baptist Church.

This year’s parade will include around 80 participants, and be led by — for the first time ever according to Atherton — the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office honor guard. The VFW Department of Georgia honor guard will also be in the parade.

This year’s theme will be “They Answered the Call, They Paid the Price,” and the grand marshal will be Korean War veteran Frank Deremer.

While the parade has often had World War II veterans serve as grand marshal, Atherton said the sad reality is that there are fewer and fewer of them left due to their age. And those who are still alive are likely to have health challenges that would make being out in the open during a parade that will last for more than an hour a nonstarter.

“It’s just that World War II veterans are in their late 90s or 100 if they’re still living and ... they’re just not capable of withstanding the heat and the humidity, the time out in the open,” Atherton said.

Even veterans of the Korean War, which is often overshadowed by World War II being in the decade before it and the Vietnam War being in the decade after it, are either already in their 90s or are approaching 90.

“This guy, I think he’s 94 or 95 years old,” Atherton said.

But the Dacula Memorial Day Parade is not about one or two specific wars. It recognizes people who served in any war and have died.

One poignant reminder of this fact is the Fallen Heroes of Georgia group, which marches in the parade each year with members holding placards to honor a Georgian who has died in combat. They will be at this year’s parade again this year and members are expected to carry about 344 placards.

Atherton said there will also be veterans in the parade as well as antique car owners, sports groups, church groups, tractors and the Dacula High School marching band.

Atherton will be at the corner of Fence Road and Dacula Road, offering a message about Memorial Day at 9:30 a.m. and later announcing parade entrants as they pass by.

“At least for the hour and a half or so that (spectators) watch the parade, they can think about and remember and honor the men and women who gave their life defending our country for the freedoms that we have,” Atherton said.

But the parade will not be the only way Gwinnettians can mark Memorial Day this weekend.

Suwanee will hold its annual Red, White, Bluegrass and Bach event on Friday night at Suwanee Town Center Park.

The Gwinnett Stripers is also holding a Salute to the Armed Forces during Friday night’s game against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.

Snellville will hold its Memorial Day Celebration and concert from 4:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Saturday at the Towne Green, which is located at 2342 Oak Road.

Several events will take place on Memorial Day itself.

Sugar Hill will host a ceremony at 10:30 a.m. on Monday at the city’s Veterans Monument, which is located at 5029 W Broad St.

The Peachtree Corners Veterans Association will hold a ceremony at 11 a.m. on Monday at the city’s Veterans Monument, which is located in the Peachtree Corners Town Center at 5140 Town Center Blvd.

The city of Norcross will hold its own Memorial Day ceremony at 11:30 a.m. on Monday at Thrasher Park, which is located on Thrasher Street, by the railroad tracks, in downtown Norcross.

Gwinnett County will hold its annual Memorial Day service at 1 p.m. on Monday at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center, which is located at 75 Langley Drive in Lawrenceville. Georgia Department of Veterans Service Commissioner and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Patricia Ross will deliver the keynote address.