Memorial Day Parade Scheduled For May 27 In Princeton

PRINCETON, NJ —The Spirit of Princeton Memorial Day Parade will be returning for an in-person celebration this year on Saturday, May 27.

The parade also coincides with Princeton University Alumni’s P-Rade, with begins at 2 p.m.

The Memorial Day Parade begins at 10 a.m. from the staging area of Nassau Street and Princeton Avenue.

Veterans and active members of the United States military services will march down Nassau Street to Monument Plaza. Participants should arrive at 9:15. a.m., at the Monument Hall parking lot and take the shuttle bus to the parade staging area.

The parade route is one mile on Nassau Street ending at Monument Plaza, where a brief ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. on the steps of Monument Hall. The celebration ends at noon.

This year, the grand marshal and speaker at the ceremony will be military intelligence expert Colonel Bill Putnam, who was commissioned at Tulane University in 1996 as a military intelligence officer.

Putnam served military tours in the United Kingdom, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Arizona, Texas, Virginia, Washington, DC, New Jersey, and North Carolina. He also participated in Operation Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Operation Iraqi Freedom as a government contractor in support of the US Army.

When he became a brigade commander of a unit at Fort Dix, he and his family decided to settle in Princeton.

Veterans and children from kindergarten to 5th grade are encouraged to march.

Also participating in the parade are:

• Princeton Police Department
• Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad
• Princeton Fire Department
• Princeton Council members
• MacGregor Pipe Band
• American Legion Post 218
• Operation Phoenix
• Princeton Cranbury Chapter Sons of the American Revolution
• Princeton Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution
• Crescent Shrine Mini Car Unit
• Colonial Musketeers
• Colonel Ogden’s First NJ Regiment
• 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment
• Trenton ROTC
• Boy Scout Troop 43
• Princeton Girl Scouts
• Princeton Little League
• Burlington City Marching Band
• Mercer County Chapter of Sunshine Foundation

After the parade, Memorial Day commemoration will continue with A Day of Remembrance Program, at the Princeton Battlefield State Park, 1 p.m.

Residents can also stay back to watch Princeton University’s alumni parade (the P-rade) that kicks off at 2 p.m. at the University’s FitzRandolph Gate and then makes its way through campus.

The Spirit of Princeton, is a charitable non-profit group of local residents dedicated to bringing the community together through a variety of civic events, including the Memorial Day parade and ceremony, Flag Day ceremony, and the Veterans’ Day ceremony.

For more information, call 609-430-0144 or visit: http://www.spiritofprinceton.org