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Parade Committee Plans For Memorial Day Events


Commander Hank Trenkle, of the Mel Tierney Post 247 of the American Legion of Park Ridge, announced planning has begun for the 2018 annual Park Ridge Memorial Day Parade.

The planning committee consists of V.F.W. Post 3579 Commander Ed Collins, Legion representatives including Trenkle, and Past Commander John Prochaska serving as parade chairman; and V.F.W. Post Officer Richard Nichols serving as chief parade marshal.

Invitations will be sent to all prior parade participants in mid-April.

Among the new units in the parade will be the Park Ridge (World War I) Centennial Commission. This is a group of volunteers who worked on the Spirit of ’45 celebration in 2015 for the end of World War II. The American Legion was organized in 1919 by American troops still in Europe after the Nov. 11, 1918 armistice, so a 2019 centennial observance is also being discussed locally.

Organizations that wish to join in the parade for the first time, or wish to rejoin the parade after a hiatus should contact the committee at PRMemDayParade@aol.com or at P.O. Box 369 in Park Ridge; or call 312-208-2582.

The Park Ridge parade will be held on Monday May 31, with a 10 a.m. start from the South Park assembly area on Talcott Road.

The parade will move north on Cumberland, to Prairie, to Main Street, and southeast to the reviewing stand on the steps of City Hall.

A commemorative ceremony will take place at the restored American Legion Veterans Monument in Hodges Park immediately following the parade’s conclusion.

Afterwards, veterans will depart for the Town of Maine Cemetery where another memorial ceremony will take place at the Civil War Veterans Monument.

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