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Date: 5/23/2022
LUDLOW/BELCHERTOWN – Ahead of Memorial Day, the veterans’ agents in Belchertown and Ludlow sat down with Reminder Publishing to discuss the holiday and events planned for the weekend as both communities look to host their first parade since the beginning of COVID-19.
Belchertown
Belchertown Veterans’ Agent Charly Oliva said the festivities kick off with a short ceremony before the parade on May 30.
“[At] 8:30 [a.m.] we will be up at South Cemetery; it’s going to be pretty brief up there. Rep. [Jacob] Oliveira will join us there, we will have a brief prayer and a mini ceremony up there,” she said.
Oliva also detailed the parade, which takes place shortly after the ceremony at South Cemetery.
“We’ll be joining with anybody who wants to march with us in the little parade starting no later than 9:30 [a.m.] behind the Town Hall, we’re going to step off at 10 [a.m.] and march over to the town common, to the green and have a ceremony over there,” she said.
During the ceremony on the green, Oliva said the Brownies, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts will be laying down wreaths.
“We’re going to have an invocation, benediction, we’re going to have the band from the local schools do some musical numbers for us and we’re going to have some echo taps,” she said.
The parade is rain or shine but in the case of severe weather, Oliva said she would be using the reverse-911 in town to let residents know the event will be canceled.
Oliva said she was looking forward to her first Memorial Day parade as Belchertown’s Veterans’ Agent after starting in 2019.
“Other than our most recent Veterans’ Day I haven’t been able to really bring the ceremonies as they were before to the town, so I’m very excited to have it in person this year, especially for Memorial Day because it is such a somber day and a day of reflection for all of us to pay our respects together,” she said.
Prior to Memorial Day, Oliva also said the Belchertown Veterans Council will be hosting a separate ceremony at Quabbin Park Cemetery at 11 a.m. on May 29. Attendees are encouraged to begin gathering at 10:30 a.m.
“It’s one of the main reasons that I am here as the Veterans’ Agent in town, to make this happen, to help gather together the town and educate those who don’t know like the smaller kids that are just learning about the holidays and what a veteran is – my daughter included,” she said. “Representing veterans myself and bringing that to the town is one of the top five most important reasons you have a veterans’ agent in the state of Massachusetts so I’m proud to be that person in Belchertown.”
Ludlow
Ludlow Veterans’ Services Agent Eric Segundo said the Memorial Day celebration kicks off at 3 p.m. on May 27 with wreath laying ceremonies, taps and 21-gun salutes at Island Pond Cemetery, the Joshua D. Desforges Memorial, the Center Street Cemetery and the Civil War Memorial.
Following a successful event in 2021, Segundo said there will be a candlelight vigil on May 29 at 6 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial on East Street.
“We did this last year in place of the parade because of COVID[-19]. We incorporated the candle lighting and with each name read we place a rose on the monument. Once the names have been read there will be a 21-gun salute and taps,” he said.
The parade, which takes place on May 30 at 10 a.m., a change from prior years, begins at the corner of Winsor and Worcester streets and proceeds to the Veterans’ Memorial Gazebo on the corner of East Street. Following the parade there will be a ceremony at the gazebo.
Segundo encouraged people to show their spirit for the parade by decorating their homes along the parade route with patriotic symbols.
The vigil and parade offer two different types of events for Memorial Day.
“The parade has always been a patriotic kickoff to our summer events. The vigil is a somber way to honor the fallen, so I think it is important to separate the two,” he said.
Segundo said he is looking forward to honoring the fallen through Memorial Day weekend.
“This is what it’s all about; the service members laid down their lives, so we have to do our best to remember them, honor them and make people aware of what those service members have done,” he said.