Elmhurst’s 104th annual Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony took place in warm sunshine as more than 70 parade entries led by the Elmhurst Police and Fire Color Guard passed hundreds of community spectators to Wilder Park for a solemn remembrance of the meaning of the day.
Those solemn ceremonies including brief remarks from Elmhurst Mayor Scott Levin, who noted the true meaning of the day and said that in England a day marking the sacrifices of members of the armed forces is called Remembrance Day.
“We’re here today to remember as well,” Levin said. “To remember those who gave their lives in the service of our great country. Let us not only remember, but honor and mourn those who died in the service of our country.”
Levin’s remarks and other events came after more than seventy parade units had circled from Church Street to Prospect Avenue, the parade’s conclusion at Wilder Park. Levin noted that this year’s event fully in person after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
Participating units were firefighters and equipment from several other towns, patriotic and service organizations, armed forces units, youth and Scout groups, businesses and local elected officials and musicians, including the York High School Marching Dukes Band.
All gathered at the city’s Veterans Memorial to listen to prayers, patriotic music and remembrances. Those remembrances included a reading by John Quigley of the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce of a list of veterans who have died since last Memorial Day, a list read as a drummer from York drummed softly in the background.
The themes of remembrance and sacrifice were also stressed by this year’s Parade Grand Marshal, retired U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant Robert Fonzino.
Fonzino, who served in Vietnam in the late 1960s, shared with the audiences the names and his memories of comrades killed in action while he served as a platoon leader in the Central Highlands there.
Fonzino said his remembering of those killed in action isn’t limited to only the last Monday of May each year.
“They fought like hell to survive,” Fonzino said, “but in the end they paid the ultimate sacrifice of their lives while proudly serving their country. … I remember their valor.”
The parade and ceremony were organized by the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry in cooperation with the Elmhurst American Legion Post THB 187, the city of Elmhurst and the Elmhurst Park District.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
