Beverly Warrior Weekend Celebrates Military To Rousing Response

BEVERLY, MA — An unscheduled moment of chance helped paint an ideal picture of a vision realized at the second annual Beverly Warrior Weekend.

As the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter — which drew droves of Warrior Weekend attendees to attention as it landed at Beverly High School on Sunday morning — was ready to depart the two-day festival, the Beverly High ensemble band began to play as part of a ceremony that included words from Lt. Colonel and Beverly High alumna Claudia Pena (Class of '93).

"The Beverly High band played off the helicopter as it flew away," Beverly Veterans Services Agent and Warrior Weekend Director David Perinchief told Patch. "That wasn't even planned. That was something that happened serendipitously."

The crowds that came to Beverly High School for two days this past weekend to view all the myriad tanks, aircraft, military vehicles, exhibitions, animals, divers, reenactors from different eras of military history, vendors, donate blood or learn more about veterans services — despite a second straight tussle with rainy weather — convinced Perinchief that the festival is on its way to fulfilling the vision of becoming a "Mini Fleet Week" on the North Shore of Massachusetts.

Helping attract even bigger crowds on Sunday was the collaboration with the Touch-A-Truck event that Perinchief said has become an essential part of Warrior Weekend.

"There were so many people there," he said. "There were lines for things. That was great to see. When we have lines at all the vendors and displays that's a great showing.

"A lot of the people I ran into said they knew about it from last year. Either they came last year or someone told them about it."

He said all the reenactor troops told him they already planned to come back next year and that the Red Cross met its goal for donations.

"It was raining but that didn't stop people," Perinchief said. "The weather did not seem to matter."

He said among the biggest draws were the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marines displays, the Essex County Dog Show, the Healing Horses exhibit, Rain Forest Reptiles alligator and the Boston Bomb Squad robot dog.

Among the highlights were a touching speech from Pena about military lives lost and a musket fire from the 54th Massachusetts Civil War "Glory" Regiment.

"This is now established," he said. "People expect it and people want it."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)