The poster beseeches: “Please come and honor veterans from Newberg, dating from the Civil War, who gave their lives for our freedom.”
In a ceremony headlined “Remember and Honor,” the annual Memorial Day services at a Newberg park will gather together a disparate collection of organizations and citizenry again this year to honor veterans of the nation’s wars.
Set for 11 a.m. Monday, May 27, at Memorial Park, the somber event will actually begin hours earlier when local Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) and American Legion and Auxiliary Unit 57 posts, along with Boy Scout troops, will travel to Valley View Cemetery, Dundee Pioneer Cemetery, Noble Pioneer Cemetery, Gibbs Cemetery and Friends Cemetery to honor a veteran who represents all the veterans in that particular cemetery. Taps will be played and a 21-gun salute will follow.
Some details of the main event at Memorial Park have yet to be determined, according to Michael Speer, adjutant of the local American Legion post.
“We’ve had several planning meetings for the cemetery portion, but not the Memorial Park part,” he said, adding that a featured speaker has yet to be determined as well. “The VFW usually handles it and they haven’t nailed that down yet.”
Speer added that the crowd that arrives for the Memorial Park event, which in the distant past could exceed several hundred, is ticking up in numbers the past few years.
“I’ve been involved for six years, and I would say it has increased some since COVID,” he remarked.
The annual event returned in 2022 after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Local legend has it that the services have been held for more than 40 years.
Although the program has yet to be set, it’s likely that some aspects of the popular event will carry over from past years.
As is custom, retired Newberg-Dundee Police Department Sgt. Tim Weaver will recite Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” from memory, a pair of NDPD officers will erect the American flag and the seven-member firing squad will shoulder their M1 Garands to perform the 21-gun salute. The American Heritage Girls will be on hand and a yet-to-be-named singer will belt out renditions of a couple of patriotic songs as well, Speer said.
The activities on the last Monday in May are in contrast to another holiday that honors veterans.
“Memorial Day is supposed to be a somber event, remembering those vets that have passed on,” Speer said in a past article. “Veterans Day is an upbeat, flag waving celebration of the living vets that have served and are still serving our country.
Memorial Day was established in 1868 following the Civil War and was originally known as Decoration Day.
The 2024 event is sponsored by Chehalem Insurance Associates, Lester C. Rees Post 57, American Legion and Jem 100, who will also mount a hamburger feed following the event.
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