Schedule Announced For 2016 Avon Memorial Day Parade

AVON, CT - The 71st-Annual Memorial Day parade and observances are scheduled for Monday, May 30.

They are sponsored by the Gildo T. Consolini VFW Avon Post 3272.

Ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m., with visits to six Avon cemeteries. Ceremonies will include placing wreaths, performing a brief service and playing "Taps" in recognition and honor of all the departed veterans of Avon.

The Parade is slated to step off at 11 a.m. from the parking lot of Sperry Park on Simsbury Road. The Avon VFW veterans and their color guard will lead the parade followed by the Avon Police Department and its color guard, the First Co. Governor’s Horse Guards led by Captain Christopher Miller, the Avon High School Marching Band as well as the Avon Fire Department and its color guard.

Next will be the Avon Boy and Girl Scouts, Cubs and Brownies.

The parade will first stop at the East Avon Cemetery next to the Avon Congregational Church for a short memorial service to honor all fallen veterans. It will then proceed to Route 44 and turn right, concluding at the Veterans Memorial on the Town Green.

An invitation has been made for a C-130 flyover by the 103rd Airlift Wing of the Connecticut Air National Guard during the parade, organizers said.

An 11:30 a.m., a memorial service has been scheduled for the Avon Veterans Memorial on the Town Green with Post Commander, Lee Wilson, veteran of Desert Storm, as master of ceremonies. The invocation will be offered by Timothy Healy, Deacon of St. Ann’s Catholic Church and a U.S. Army Vietnam Veteran.

After the presentation of the Memorial Wreath and Forget-me-Nots, "Taps" will be played by two members of the Avon High School band and the National Anthem will be sung by Rhapsody, an a capella group from Avon High School.

Wilson, who serverd in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, is this year’s keynote speaker. It is the 25th anniversary of the conflict.

The VFW Auxiliary will be on the Town Green with many patriotic items to sell as a fundraiser for its many events that benefit local veterans and their families.

The VFW is inviting all military veterans to march, or ride in the parade. To arrange a ride, contact Bill Samol at 860-673-0594.

The War Memorial on the Town Green lists 719 Veterans from Avon who served their country from the Mexican War to the Gulf War and separately honors 41 Veterans who gave their lives in four wars. Four new stones were added to the memorial last year in order to have names of those Avon residents who served in the War on Terror that began on September 11, 2001.

In the event of rain, the ceremonies will be conducted at Avon’s Senior Center, 635 West Avon Road at 11 a.m.