5 26 2024 Corky Row Memorial Parade and Ceremony

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good morning all and welcome to Griffin Park for our Memorial services on Veterans Day present colors and if the Vietnam veterans of Fall River would post colors the opening prayer will be given by Mark Conrad

well first on behalf of the Ciro neighborhood association welcome to Ciro and to staff sergeant James Griffin Park would you join with me in a word of prayer Our Lord in heaven we come before you very humbly to ask for your blessing upon our gathering today and on this weekend Lord we desire to honor those who gave their last full measure of Devotion to allow us to live freely in this

country Lord we do also implore your blessings father on the things that we're seeing all around us Lord that these young people lost their lives father in order to make sure that we have freedom we are in trouble your word says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their Wicked Ways then I will hear from heaven and I will hear their

prayers and forgive their sins and heal their land so we ask you right now father that you would Lord have your hand on America so that these young people Lord we can continue to honor them in their sacrifice For Your Glory now Lord many are praying in different names but I pray in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I ask everybody to say amen amen thank you if I could have Lily

jezell come forward this is our Miss Fall River and she will be singing the national anthem

oh say can you see my the dawn early light what so proudly we hailed at the Twilight last gleaming whose BR stripes and bright stars through the parous fight or the ramp parts we watch were so Gallant streaming and the rockets red GL the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that star spangled man wave or the land of the free and the home of the

brave thank you thank you that was beautiful um I'd like to call up my colleague on the city council Andrew Raposa to lead us in the pledge of Legion thanks I just that up I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and now we have our greetings from

the city of Fall River uh May Paul kougan who's also been a member of the cocky

row um thank you councelor Pereira and I want to thank everybody for coming out on this truly beautiful day for this very solemn ceremony to honor people and their families and the residents of Fall River that sacrifice so much for our country um Memorial Day is a special special time in the city of Far River and being at Griffin Park today is another one of those celebrations that

means so much to so many people so we never forget the sacrifices and the commitment they made to make this country a better place to live so thank you all for being here and I appreciate the opportunity to send the greetings from the city thank you next on our speaking program former mayor current County Commissioner good friend uh Attorney John Mitchell also has spent a lot of time at the cocky row over the years

welcome thank you Linda you're welcome and good morning to um everyone I just have some brief remarks and what I'd like to emphasize I guess particularly as a non-veteran is the appreciation for everyone's service we hold both as individuals and as a Nation about 130 years ago not far from here uh in Cambridge a man who had little in common with residents of coiro with that time or now or even when many

of us uh either grew up here or our families did oliv Wendel Holmes who was a Civil War veteran wounded three times in that war and served Liv immediately upon his graduation from Harvard in 1861 he spoke repeatedly and emphasized the importance of M Memorial Day ceremonies he took great pride in his Civil War service and I hope we don't lose track of the importance of this holidays it falls at a great time for us

in this part of the country we enjoy our cookouts we enjoy the holiday we enjoy the sales we enjoy getting around but but Oliver Wendell Holmes who served in the 20th Massachusetts and fought at antium among other battles almost 130 years ago to this day reminded his audience so to the indifferent Inquirer who ask why Memorial Day is still kept up we may answer it celebrates and solemly

reaffirms from year to year our national acts of enthusias m in faith and I think that's the important thing we need to keep in mind is this is a day when we reaffirm our national faith and thank all of you who served and showed your great faith in this country by the sacrifices you made so to everyone a Happy Memorial day but let's try to remember what this day is for and thank

you to all the veterans thank you our next speaker is BJ McDonald's also known very well in the KIRO area and a present uh registra of Deeds BJ sometimes these mics go off a little and say something quick thank you Linda and I just would like to thank all uh veterans our current veterans our future veterans and past Veterans for all your sacrifices as well as uh past speakers have said uh we

thank you for serving our country and protecting this great country the United States of America so I thank you again and hope you have a nice day today uh as we go forward thank you thank you well Cy row is a community within a community in our city um and we still I mean look at this beautiful park that's here and look at who it's named after staff sergeant James Griffin and every

year we come here I've been coming here for what 28 years um I don't know if Ed will remember has it been that long that I've been coming here not sure but and we they're always trying to improve the neighborhood and we did have a couple of new benches that were put in um for Jamie Terrell's uncle there is a bench that's here as well and uh for Jack

Nolan for John Nolan there is a bench so there's always um trying to improve and do a little better and I think we've done a great job here and it's nice to drive by here and see the youth in the park um and to see the sense of community that still exists here unfortunately each year we lose people and this year some of the members of the Cy row that we have lost is um

Everett and um Mr coin and we had Mr coin's daughter and granddaughter here um and it's funny because Mr coin's father so would be your grandfather and your great-grandfather was a veterans agent in Fall River I remember him doesn't make me very young does it um so it is so nice to have people here now we will have Mark Conrad come and provide us with a closing

remarks one of the things that I most appreciate as a veteran is how much the community does remember us uh the fact that we have so many things that are named after our heroes those who have gone before us is very uplifting um take a moment this weekend or even in Veterans Day and just um find out all the different uh sites that we have here in fall river that are

named after those who have gone before us we need to continue that because I think many as you know when we begin to forget our heroes we will lose our nation so as um as John said this is a very important holiday something that we should all always seek to be able to remember on so would you once again join me for a word of prayer Lord God in heaven we thank you

for this opportunity to freely come together this concept of freedom is easy to take for granted but we do not we pause right now we will other times this year to remember those who have shed their blood so that we can live these lives that we have that we can can make decisions for ourselves that we can vote for our elected officials and that we could make decisions for our families

that we decide what is right but Lord we also come before you very humbly to Thank You Lord God that these freedoms come from you that these rights Lord are are endowed by you Lord as our Declaration of Independence says so now Lord God as we are getting close to the end of this ceremony father and then we're going to see a great symbol of Freedom we remember those Lord

who did as I mentioned gave their last full measure of devotion so that we can continue to live in Freedom and as many of them died to spread Freedom throughout the world again I I there are many of us praying in many different names and I finish by praying in the name of Jesus Christ amen amen thank you at this time I would ask Chris Fano and Jack Nolan to place the

wreath I can't help but think how proud staff sergeant James Griffin would be with this ceremony with this lovely park and having this in his

memory the Four River honor God retire colors and in closing we'd like to I'd like to take time to thank all of you in attendance I'd like to thank the Vietnam veterans of Four River Commander bill dearis and the Vietnam Veterans for providing their service and the the playing of TAPS will happen now as well as the dove release we'll need the three people uh who will be releasing doves if you could come

up Mary and uh Mr cabal Mr cabol um is a veteran God love him that he still fits in his uniform and he has been in Vietnam on three ches I've known his mother Ida cabal many of you will remember Ida cabal um and he certainly stays just as involved as his mom did at the conclusion of TAPS and the dove release kindly join us back at Cory Row for some light refreshments

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thank you all for your attendance and in for River we do not forget our veterans and on behalf of Ray ha who's the president of Ciro and Chris fatano for the lovely service that they have put together kindly join them for Refreshments have a wonderful day