Memorial Day celebrations took place this year in Spring Hill and Brighton Heights to honor the nation’s veterans.

By Zach Armstrong

Veteran Ted Bergfelt performed “You’re a Grand Old Flag” to residents gathered at Legion Park in Brighton Heights. Carmela Webber sang “America the Beautiful” to a similar audience at Brady Memorial Home in Spring Hill. These activities were hosted on the Northside to honor the nation’s veterans on Memorial Day, May 27.

Brighton Heights Citizens Federation treated residents of Brighton Heights to their 71st Annual Memorial Day Observance, which featured a patriotic sing-along and a reading of the Gettysburg Address followed by a picnic at Emmanuel Christian Church.

Brady Memorial Home celebrated the holiday with a barbecue. There was a gun salute from the VFW Post 7090 of the Firing Squad of the American Legion. Guest speaker, Councilwoman Darlene Harris, attended, and in her remarks, recalled “wonderful” Memorial Day parades that happened in the same neighborhood. She watched the festivities on her bicycle, she said, when she was a young girl.

Tina Lippert, who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2002, was in attendance. She said she thinks Memorial Day events “…[bring] Americans and communities together to remind ourselves that we’ve all had to sacrifice and that we’re all in this together.”

Other veterans who served in America’s contemporary wars attended the events on Memorial Day as well. Mike Tweedly, Northside resident and Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, attended the event at Brady Memorial Home with his father-in-law, Frank Bookman. Bookman was stationed in Guam during World War II.

“To honor the veterans as well as the soldiers that didn’t make it, is something we should do as patriots,” said Tweedly.