GREENWICH — Several events are planned for Greenwich residents to pay tribute to the members of the military throughout the long holiday weekend.

Three Memorial Day parades will be held along with ceremonies to mark the service of those killed in the line of duty.

The weekend will also include the Greenwich Town Party on Saturday and the Jim Fixx Memorial Day Run on Monday.

The weekend unofficially kicked off Thursday with the return of American flags along the Dave Theis Memorial Bridge connecting Cos Cob to Riverside.

“I think it reflects positively on the town that we have so many organizations that are paying respect to those men and women who served our country and paid the ultimate sacrifice,” said First Selectman Peter Tesei. “I think it is encouraging to see. It’s still critically important in providing young people with the understanding of the meaning of Memorial Day.”

Local veterans posts and Scouts have been placing flags on veterans’ graves in preparation of the weekend’s events.
The first scheduled ceremony is set for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, with the Cos Cob VFW Post 8 gathering by the area’s memorial at the intersection of Strickland and River Road.

Saturday is also the day of the Greenwich Town Party at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park starting at 10 a.m. The party’s all-day musical lineup includes several local bands and performers as well as headliners Hall and Oates, John Fogerty and the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Tickets for the event are sold out.

Two parades are set for Sunday. At 2 p.m., the Byram Veterans Association Annual Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony will begin on Delavan Avenue and move through Byram’s downtown area before ending up at the Byram Shubert Library for a ceremony.
That parade will be followed at 5 p.m. by the Glenville Volunteer Fire Department Annual Memorial Day Parade and Service starting on Glenville Street at Walker Court and ending up at the Veterans Memorial next to the Glenville Fire House. A wreath will be laid at the memorial and refreshments will be served afterwards.

Members of the public are invited to all of the town’s parades and ceremonies.

A centerpiece of the long weekend’s events will be the annual dockside ceremony held at the Indian Harbor Yacht Club, 710 Steamboard Road, on Monday, Memorial Day. Put together by the American Legion Post 29, the ceremony, which dates back more than 50 years, is a remembrance of lives lost.

Post Commander Christopher Hughes, a Marine veteran, said it is especially important to mark the service of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

“This is a national holiday and very often people think it’s just a chance to go and have a barbecue,” Hughes said. “People need to remember that people had to fight for and defend the rights that we as Americans all enjoy. We can’t take that for granted and we need to remember there are people fighting threats today and our freedoms are imperiled by forces within and outside the United States.”
The ceremony, which begins at 8 a.m. sharp, will feature remarks from U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a Greenwich resident and former Marine who has two sons in active service. Keynote remarks will be delivered by Greenwich resident Adm. John Weigold, who will talk about the meaning of Memorial Day.

Among those participating will be the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich’s Honor Guard and representatives from Greenwich’s veterans groups. Two memorial wreaths will be placed, one on land for fallen members of the military and one in the water to mark those lost at sea.
The ceremony is open to the public.

The dockside memorial will be followed by the annual Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Department Memorial Day Parade in Old Greenwich. The biggest of the town’s parades, it is set to begin at 10 a.m. at Sound Beach Avenue at Shore Acre Drive, march to Binney Park and conclude with services to mark the holiday.

Also on Monday is the 2016 Betteridge Jim Fixx Memorial Run beginning at 8:15 a.m. Two runs will be held, a half-mile run around the track in back of the Havemeyer Building, 290 Greenwich Ave., and a 5-mile run starting at Betteridge Jewelers, 239 Greenwich Ave. The race will honor the late iconic former town Parks and Recreation director Frank Keegan. More information is online at http://threadsandtreads.com/home/race/jim-fixx-memorial-day-run.

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