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Brief Ceremonies Scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend in Bellingham

Apr 30, 2020 06:00AM ● By Kenneth Hamwey
by Ken Hamwey, Contributing Writer

Bellingham’s annual Memorial Day parade and ceremony, scheduled for May 17, has been canceled because of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, but the Memorial and Veterans Day Committee will honor the service and sacrifice of departed veterans with brief ceremonies at each of the town’s memorial squares on May 23, starting at 9 am.

On Memorial Day, May 25, starting at 1 pm, the committee will conduct brief ceremonies at the Memorial Middle School, at the World War 1 and Peterson Memorials at Old Town Hall and at the Civil War and War Memorials at the town common.

Jim Hastings, chairman of the Memorial and Veterans Day Committee, will lead the ceremonies and will be accompanied by clergymen, a three-man rifle volley team (if available), committee members and town officials. The public is invited but must abide by social distancing regulations. Each of the ceremonies will open with an invocation and conclude with the playing of “Taps.”

“It’s unfortunate that the annual parade and ceremony had to be canceled this year, but we can’t forget the service and sacrifice of fallen and departed veterans who paid the ultimate price,” Hastings said. “We’ll honor their memory at brief ceremonies at each memorial location.”

May 23 (beginning at 9 a.m.):
The memorial squares that the committee will visit, in order, are Walter Lenkits (WWII), Hartford Avenue and Plymouth Road; Herbert B. Arnold (WW I), Hartford Avenue and Maple Street; Theodore B. Hall (WWII), Maple Street and Pine Street; Charles W. Turner Memorial Bridge (Medal of Honor, WWII), Hartford Avenue at McDonald’s; Edward Baldiga (WW II), Hartford Avenue and North Main Street; Thomas Berardi (Korea), Hartford Avenue and Monique Drive; Edward L. Spencer (WW I), Bellingham Center; John Peterson (Vietnam), Cranberry Meadow Road and Indian Run Road; Albert Prefontaine (WW II), South Main Street and Elm Street; Armand Levesque (WWII), Linwood Avenue and Westminster Street; Leandro F. Rotatori (WWII) and Augusto L. Bozzi (WWII), entrance to Advanced Auto, Pulaski Boulevard; Harold Trudel (WWII), Route 126 and Bellingham Street; Francis T. Monterio (WWII), Center Street at Pulaski Boulevard.             

May 25—Memorial Day  (beginning at 1 p.m.):
Bellingham Memorial Middle School; WWI and Peterson Memorial (Old Town Hall); Civil War Memorial, Town Common; and War Memorial (WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Panama, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom), Town Common).

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