Grand marshal selected for upcoming Memorial Day Parade

The Freeport Memorial Day Parade, organized by American Legion William Clinton Story Post No. 342 will take place on May 27.

The parade will begin at 10 a.m. at Freeport High School, and head east on Merrick Road to Freeport Memorial Library.

“We’ve been basically doing the parades since the ’20s all the way up to the present day for Memorial Day,” said David Cockerel, 65, adjutant, and former commander, of Post 342, one of the oldest American Legion posts in existence.

The American Legion is a nonprofit that supports United States veterans, founded by Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and other veterans after World War I. It was chartered by U.S. Congress in September 1919, and played a leading role in the drafting and passing of the 1944 G.I. Bill, which provide benefits to returning U.S. veterans and whose legacy lives on in modern programs designed to assist American veterans.

The Freeport post is named after William Clinton Story, one of the first Freeport residents to die in World War I.

The purpose of the Memorial Day Parade, Cockerel said, is to honor fallen veterans as well as Gold Star mothers, whose sons sacrificed their lives while fulfilling their military duties.

This year, the parade’s grand marshal — its honored ceremonial leader — is Kalib Walker, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

Walker, 32, has been involved in the American Legion since 2015, having served in the Marines from 2011 to 2015 and having had three deployments overseas — one with the private military contractor GardaWorld.

Walker — who was stationed near Twentynine Palms, California, was named grand marshal after Joe Higgins, a veteran and the president of the Freeport PAL Boxing Gym turned down the honor, saying that Walker, who has seen combat, would be a better choice.

Of Walker, whom he coached as a boxer when Walker came to the gym at age 14 years old, Higgins said, Kalib “was always a hard worker, a man of faith, and a loyal son to his mom,” and added that he was an “absolute hero in my eyes.”

Walker cited Higgins as a major influence in his life, saying it was Higgins who helped him decide to go into the Marine Corps after high school.

While serving in the Marines, Walker said, he learned the value of “working hard, finishing things to completion, setting tasks for yourself. Small little deep details that you don’t really understand in your real life — it really helped. You know … organizing, planning things out.”

These lessons have served him well in his work as a financial analyst, and that while he struggled before he enlisted — he decided to sign up after a semester of college — after he returned, his classes were “a breeze.”

Walker, who now lives in Island Park, graduated from Hofstra University in 2020 with a degree in marketing, and is the father of two children.

“I’m excited about it, you know?” he said of being named grand marshal. “It’s a big honor. In life, things don’t always work out, so you’ve got to prepare to be disappointed. So, I’m never going to have a big head about these kinds of things. But, also, it’s still nice to be recognized for something.

“I’m excited, I’m happy,” he added. “You know, the family’s happy, so that’s all that really matters.”

On May 22, there will be a meeting to discuss the staging of the parade at the William Clinton Story Post headquarters, located at 925 S. Ocean Ave. Representatives of Freeport civic groups, businesses, and religious organizations are encouraged to attend.