Hundreds of New Hyde Park residents gathered in Memorial Park on Saturday in front of an American flag draped across fences surrounding the tennis courts in honor of Memorial Day.
“I wonder sometimes how you cannot salute this flag,” Mayor Lawrence Montreuil said.
Montreuil told the crowd if not for the sacrifices of veterans, the red, white and blue flag could have been a Union Jack, swastika or black flag of ISIS.
(Photo by Rebecca Klar)
Montreuil was joined on stage by fellow village trustees as well as other elected officials, including North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Town Councilman Angelo Ferrara, Town Councilwoman Anna Kaplan, Town Clerk Wayne Wink, state Sen. Elaine Phillips, Nassau County Legislature Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello and Assemblyman Ed Ra, during the ceremony that followed the village’s annual parade.
Local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, marching bands and other community groups marched through the village on Saturday under sunny skies – beating the cold Memorial Day weekend weather that followed on Sunday and Monday.
(Photo by Rebecca Klar)
During his speech Montreuil said that although Memorial Day is a day of remembrance, it is not the first time this year the village has come together to remember lost lives, noting the deaths of New Hyde Park Memorial High School sophomore Leah Kuczinski and Trustee Donald Barbieri.
Kuczinski died in February when, according to Newsday, she was killed in a go-kart accident at the Palm Beach International Raceway in Jupiter, Florida.
Barbieri died in February at 58, after serving 18 years on the board and fighting a decades-long battle with multiple sclerosis.
The Memorial Day ceremony ended with the laying of the wreath at Memorial Park.
