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Mostly Cloudy Village honors veterans on Memorial Day
Rockville Centre remembers its fallen heroes
Hundreds of village residents lined Long Beach Road on Monday to watch the annual Memorial Day Parade and honor Rockville Centre residents who died while serving their country.
The parade followed a new route this year, due to construction on Maple Avenue. It kicked off at South Side High School and headed south on Long Beach Road. Village firefighters, police officers and members of the village Little League and its Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops marched to Veterans Park at the Recreation Center, while the South Side Middle School band performed patriotic tunes.
At the park, the solemnity of the day was captured in a ceremony led by American Legion Post 303. Commander Joseph Scarola welcomed the crowd before Girl Scouts from Troop 837 led the Pledge of Allegiance and Joseph Brunetta of the American Legion sang the national anthem.
Master of Ceremonies Paul Casazza, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who served in Afghanistan, reminded the attendees of the holiday’s true meaning. “On the monuments in this park, we honor the names of 105 Rockville Centre residents that have made the ultimate sacrifice,” Casazza said. “It is important to remember that the freedoms that we enjoy are not free.”
Grand Marshal George Antonucci, an 88-year-old World War II veteran and a Rockville Centre resident for 53 years, also spoke of the importance of remembrance. “As I do every Memorial Day, I look back at the time almost 70 years ago when I was younger than I am,” he said. “But remembering our dead once a year is not enough.”
Mayor Francis X. Murray and State Sen. Dean Skelos also addressed the crowd, and the middle school band played a patriotic medley before members of local organizations presented wreaths in honor of the village’s fallen. Afterward, the Rev. Dennis Suglia, who served in the Marine Corps, gave a benediction, and the ceremony closed with a 21-gun salute.
