A memorial ceremony was held at Griffin Park on May 28, 2023, to honor Staff Sergeant James Griffin and other fallen heroes. The event commenced with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by an opening prayer led by Mark Conrad of the Corky Row neighborhood association. Mayor Paul Coogan delivered greetings, acknowledging several public officials including State Representative Carol Fiola, City Council Vice President Linda Pereira, State Representative Allen Sylvia, and School Committee Member Paul Hart. He emphasized the significance of Memorial Day in Fall River as a time to reflect on the sacrifices made for the country's freedom. The ceremony continued with Kristen Nolan Fasciano and Jack Nolan placing a wreath, accompanied by a rendition of "Amazing Grace." The host thanked the Fall River Fire and Police Department honor guard and various military organizations for their participation. He also highlighted additions to the park over the years, including benches dedicated to John Nolan and Jim Terrell, and an all-veterans monument. Mayor Coogan returned to thank Mark Conrad and the Corky Row crew for their volunteer work in maintaining the park, and acknowledged Chief of Police Paul Garvin and Deputy Barton Castro. Kevin Grant, President of the Corky Row Club, spoke about the profound sacrifice of service members for the entire nation and the importance of unity. The ceremony concluded with a closing prayer from Mark Conrad, who referenced Abraham Lincoln's call to complete the work of the fallen, and the playing of Taps by Adjutant Larry Barola.
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morning everyone thank you for joining us here today and you get a little closer and not afraid of me I don't have to yell as much as I want to thank you for joining us here today um I'm filling in for my good friend Bill witty um he wanted to be here today but uh unable to make it he sends his best and I wish he could be here today and we're going to uh
0:31start with the Pledge of Allegiance and that will be with the assembly so if you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance for 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 I would now like to ask Mark Conrad to lead us in an opening prayer
1:06on behalf of the Corky Road neighborhood association welcome to staff sergeant James Griffin Park and thank you for joining us in today's Memorial would you join with me in a word of Prayer almost Heavenly God our great creator the God of all love the God of all knowledge the God of all wisdom we praise you and thank you Lord for giving us this opportunity to come together Lord as a contrite people we
1:34humbly seek your forgiveness for the shortcomings that are a part of the human nature and we love you and thank you Father for giving us thank you for this opportunity Lord to come together these are free people Lord to be able to memorialize and remember and honor our heroes and as a result we thank you Father for our freedoms that come from their sacrifices and we ask you right now that you would
2:02bless this Gathering use it for your glory so that we can continue to be a free Nation these things Lord God many of us pray in different names but I pray in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and everybody got to say Amen thank you Mark I'd now like to ask mayor Paul Coogan to deliver some greetings obviously I want to thank Ray he always does a great job down here
2:39Corky Row first of all I want to acknowledge a few people that joined us here today state representative Carol Fiola city council vice president Linda Pereira state representative Allen Sylvia and school Committee Member Paul Hart Memorial Day in fall river is always a very special time a time to reflect on exactly what we're focused on today the people that never came back the people that gave
3:06everything they could to keep this country free the people that came back to give us an opportunity to join today at Griffin Park and honor one of fall River's fallen heroes I appreciate everyone coming out today I hope we see you this afternoon at the parade and again thanks for being with us in Griffin Park today
3:31thank you man now we'd like to have the placing of the wreath by Kristen Nolan fasciano and Jack Nolan
3:48and we'll have a rendition of Amazing Grace
4:24foreign
5:09foreign thank you I'd like to thank the Fall River Fire and Police Department honor God for joining us and I'd like to thank the various military organizations that have joined us today in a been here over the years this has been a long standard tradition and we're happy and proud that we're able to continue to do this with the many other events throughout the city a couple of other things we've added
5:47over the years some of them during my tenure as vso we had added the John Nolan bench Kia in Korea and we added the Jim Terrell World War II Kia bench here which was only appropriate here at Griffin Park and we added the all veterans Monument for all veterans that serve from the Quake Rowan it's numerous and it goes all the way back before the Civil War actually we had a
6:25Medal of Honor recipient live right up here I believe on Fifth Street so um with that said I would like to get into the closing prayer from Mark Conrad oh Kevin I'm sorry president of the clock here how could I forget sorry Kevin yeah and the mayor is going to say something else also so come on anybody else I know I'm going to be tortured for this but I do want to thank the crew I came
7:00by yesterday your guys were doing this uh really good thorough cleaning they were raking they made the park look like a million bucks Mark Conrad and the Corky wrote The Crew take care of this place and it's uh it's all volunteer work so we really appreciate it I was also want to acknowledge joining us today as a chief of police Paul Garvin and uh one of the the deputies uh Barton Castro
7:25came down to be with us Griffin Park is a place we're keeping our eyes on and Mark Conrad and his crew are doing the same so we appreciate it and thanks for the cleanup yesterday mark foreign thank you for doing a good job keeping these guys on their toes I know you got a lot of money to spend so I hope you're going to spend I'm gonna spend a lot of it here it's always
7:48the money follow the money okay back to being serious uh like to hear from the uh president Uh Kevin Grant who's done a tremendous job throwing this time of transition for the cocky row club uh we're almost at the point we want to be at we're hoping to have a great year and uh president I thought for a minute there Ray was getting me out of class early but I guess not
8:19um something I want to point out on this day uh is you know it's easy to talk about sacrifice and it's easy to think of sacrifice for your family and your friends but really the sacrifice uh that Sergeant Griffin and so many others uh presented uh was for the entire nation that included people who were not like them uh strangers people they disagreed with the neighbor down the street who
8:43would steal your parking space in Winter after you shoveled it out everybody and on top of that also a bunch of people in other countries who did not speak the same language as us did not share even some of our ideals but we're free people and we're in serious trouble those sacrifices established us with a lot of good will throughout the world that we still appreciate today um it's really important to remember
9:09that it's remembered all over the world and maybe not remembered so much at home uh where we we tend to think of ourselves as these uh tiny groups of people with nothing to do with everybody else but despite our differences we're all Americans and it would be nice if we remembered that as much as some of uh the people that we helped in World War II do today um I just came back from Ireland uh and
9:34I'm going to attempt a little bit of Irish here nawala which means where is my friend he was here but he went home and with that I want to leave you folks today we're going to have some refreshments at the club thank you to all the veterans here who served and thank you all for coming out to take the time today it's a beautiful day today let's enjoy it thank you thank you Kevin
10:05and now we will have the closing prayer from Mark Conrad they can't allow me to uh thank you for coming out I want to thank you for uh the time that you spend it's it's very precious I can say to you as a retired naval officer that um this this means so much to all of us on active duty and in the reserves and for the families the blue and gold star families too
10:36anytime that we take time out of our days and our weekends to remember our fallen carries us forward and in a very powerful way it encourages us to continue to be as Kevin said a great nation and to care for each other in great ways would you join with me again in closing in our prayer again Lord we come before you very humbly and very gratefully to praise your name to say with our whole Hearts
11:07you are our God and there is none other as a forgiven people Fallen people Lord we come before you against Lord to say thank you for your forgiveness thank you for caring so much for us that you made great sacrifices for us as well Lord there is just no way to truly commemorate our war dead those who are in uniform who did not come back alive Lord there is just no way
11:39our time father God is just still nothing compared to the suffering that they experience that their friends and families experienced as well so father again just change us all the more as Abraham Lincoln stated Florida a president who knew commemorating War dead more than any other president we must complete the work that they were in we must bind up our nation we must heal our wounded care for the Widow and the
12:07families so we ask you when we rededicate ourselves right now Lord God to be that type of people that father God that a world Lord God that can see us a nation of the People by the people and for the people so we can continue to have a lasting and just life again Lord I pray in the name of Jesus Christ and we all as neighbors and as fellow countrymen and women get to say Amen oh
12:44thank you we'll now have Taps by adjutant Larry barola at your command Larry
13:25oh
13:59that concludes our ceremony for today and thank you for joining us and I'll see you back at the club