Taps, gun salutes, but also a celebration

KENT — It was a cloudy but dry morning for the annual Memorial Day parade on Monday, May 25. Spectators lined both sides of Main Street and Route 341 as the American Legion Honor Guard led the parade, followed by veterans on foot and in military cars and convertibles with their tops down. 

Close behind were the Kent Center School (KCS) marching band, members of the Pack 11 Boy Scout troop and members of the Volunteer Fire Department  (some of them marching and others driving the town’s fire trucks and the ambulance).

The parade started with a flyover by the Massachusetts National Guard.  On the ground, the parade participants proceeded from Kent Center School to the Kent Memorial Library, making three stops along the way. 

The first was at St. Andrew’s Cemetery, where the Rev. Roger White from St. Andrew’s Church led a prayer that was followed by a gun salute and taps played by two boys from the marching band.

The procession continued down route 341, stopping in front of the Veterans Memorial on Veterans Way. World War II veteran Robert Bauer placed a wreath on the memorial and the Rev. Lee Hellwig of Sacred Heart Church offered a prayer that was followed by a gun salute and taps played by two girls from the marching band.

The parade turned onto Route 7 and paused at the intersection by the Civil War Monument, where Charlotte Lindsey placed a wreath. KCS student Beatrice Vorhees recited the Gettysburg Address, followed by a prayer by the Rev. David McIntosh of St. Andrew’s Church and a gun salute and taps.

The parade then moved down Main Street, coming to a final stop at the Kent Memorial Library, where World War II veteran John Osborne Jr. placed a wreath on the monument next to the library. 

First Selectman Bruce Adams read the names of veterans from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War to “honor those Kent veterans who died of injuries received in combat.”

Special recognition was given to Jack Osborne, John Bauer and Gerry White. That was followed by the singing of “America the Beautiful” by Bethany Keck. 

The marching band performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the Rev. Melinda Keck of the First Congregational Church said a prayer. The American Legion and other veterans performed a final gun salute followed by taps.

Those in attendance where then invited to the Community House for ice cream and other refreshments provided by the American Legion Hall-Jennings Post No. 153 and Kent Lions Club. The Kent Land Trust also hosted a free picnic with hot dogs, live music, bird-banding, a construct-your-own bat house workshop, a bouncy castle, hay rides, face painting and other activities.