By Christina Georgiou
Every Memorial Day for the last 114 years, those in Easton have commemorated those who served their country and sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom, and this year was no exception.
Proceeding from Sixth Street down Northampton Street to the Delaware River, parade participants, led by the Northampton County Marine Corps League, were met by an enthusiastic public along the way.
Also part of the remembrance day event were local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, the Easton Hummingbirds Adventurer Club, El Camino Pathfinders Club, the Olivet Church Youth Group, the 4-H Club of Northampton County, the Corvette Club, the Easton Fire Department and Easton Police Mobile Unit, and Suburban Emergency Squad.
Music was provided by the Easton Area High School Marching Band.
Upon reaching the river, a contingent of the parade, including Mayor Sal Panto and Vice Mayor Ken Brown, along with State Representative Bob Freeman, met Phillipsburg New Jersey officials, including Phillipsburg Mayor Harry Wyant.
With a gun salute by firing squads from Bernadine May American Legion Post #457 and Brown and Lynch American Legion Post 9, a memorial wreath, along with flowers were cast into the river, to the echoing tune of "Taps", played by EAHS buglers Dominic Ruggiero and Christopher Pryer.
A memorial service, which included remarks by Captain Edward Smith of the US Naval Reserve, the national anthem and "Amazing Grace" sung by EAHS junior Megan Zsilavec, and a reading of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by EAHS senior Nick DeNunzio, was punctuated by the placing of a wreath by local Blue Star Mothers and a reading of a roll call list of deceased local service members.
At the conclusion of the event, members of Cub Scout Pack #3 from College Hill released red, white, and blue doves, who promptly flew off to freedom into the sunny, blue sky.
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