The City of Kentwood will mark Memorial Day with a parade on Monday, May 29, hosted this year by the Amvets Post 23.
For the past several years, the Amvets Post and the America Legion D.W. Cassard Post 208 have shared the responsibilities of hosting the annual parade and service with one group hosting it one year and the other hosting it the next. For 2017, it is the Amvets who have organized the event.
The parade will kick off at 10 a.m. from the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), near the corner of 48th Street and Eastern Avenue. From there, it will head west down 48th Street to Kentwood’s Veteran’s Memorial Park located in front of the Kentwood Activities Center, 355 48th St. SE. At the park, there will be a ceremony including the laying of five wreaths, one for each of the branches of the military service: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The service will last about an hour.
The entire parade and service will be rebroadcast on WKTV 25, at 12:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Memorial Day, Monday, May 29. In fact, the entire program for that day will focus on Memorial Day activities and will include “Salute to Honor” at 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.; a Memorial Day Tribute at 10 a.m.; “Lost Boat Ceremony” at the USS Silverside at 10:15 a.m. and 9 p.m.; City of Kentwood Memorial Day Parade at 12:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.; “Lest We Forget” at 1 p.m.; the Vietnam Moving Wall at 6:30 p.m.; and the City of Wyoming Memorial Day Service at 8:30 p.m.
The WKTV Government 26 channel will feature “Salute to Honor” at 6:30 p.m. and the National Veteran’s Creative Arts Festival at 7 p.m.
