Elmhurst to Host 98th Annual Memorial Day Parade

Elmhurst, IL - Elmhurst’s 98th Annual Memorial Day Parade will travel through downtown Elmhurst on Monday, May 30, beginning at 9:30 a.m.

The 2016 parade will be led by Grand Marshal Richard Agemura, a combat decorated Korean War Field Artillery Battalion Radio Chief as a United States Army Sergeant, according to the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which presents the parade with Elmhurst American Legion T.H.B. Post 187, Veterans of Foreign Wars Villa Park Post 2801 and the City of Elmhurst.

About 90 entries will march in the procession, and members of the Kiwanis Club of Elmhurst will serve as parade marshals, with help from Veterans of Elmhurst College.

View this event on the Elmhurst Patch Event Calendar.

Parade co-chairs are Ralph P. Pechanio, Chairman of the Elmhurst Veterans Memorial Commission and a long-time member of the Kiwanis Club of Elmhurst, and John R. Quigley, President & CEO of the Elmhurst Chamber.

“Our parade is a tribute to all those men and women who have so bravely put their lives on the line to defend individual freedoms here in this greatest of nations and around the world,” Quigley said in a statement. “Our Grand Marshal endured the pain of World War II in an internment camp as a Japanese American teenager and then served his birth country with distinction during the Korean War as a young man more than 60 years ago.” 

The parade will start at York Road and Third Street, and it will end with a military ceremony at the Veterans Memorial in Wilder Park. 

Applications to have a deceased veteran honored at the Veterans Memorial are available at Elmhurst City Hall, 209 North York Street, or by calling 630-530-3010. Donations to the Veterans Memorial Fund are appreciated.

For more information, visit the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce and Industry website.