Residents are Invited to Honor and Remember
(READING, MA – May 21, 2024) – The veterans of Reading and the Reading Veterans Services Officer request the honor and presence of the residents of Reading in assisting and helping us in honoring and observing Memorial Day 2024 through our annual parade, cemetery ceremonies, and decorating veteran gravesites. An additional informal flag raising by the Good Samaritan Lodge of Freemasons will also take place in the afternoon.
All veterans’ organizations are welcomed and encouraged to participate in Reading’s Memorial Day observations. All Scouting organizations are also welcome to participate and invited to march in the Memorial Day Parade.
This year’s Memorial Day events will start with the annual parade beginning at the Ash Street American Legion where the parade route will follow as in years past.
The parade route begins on Ash Street to Washington Street, left on Washington Street, left on Main Street, slight left in front of CVS, up the street, and across Woburn Street crossing over Lowell Street (129) up into Laurel Hill Cemetery where the first of four cemetery ceremonies will take place at 9:15 AM.
The remaining three ceremonies will be:
- Forest Glen Cemetery: 10:45 AM
- Charles Lawn Cemetery: 11:30 AM
- Wood End: 12:00 Noon
In Reading, 2,446 Veterans are laid to rest in our four cemeteries. Veterans are from Colonial wars, the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and current conflicts. In this week before Memorial Day, town staff from the Cemetery and Parks and Forestry Departments work to prepare the grounds. A dedicated group of organized volunteers of veterans, Police and Fire Departments, and residents gather to place markers on each veteran gravesite. The Saturday beforehand members of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts with their leaders and parents gather at the cemeteries and place an American Flag and a geranium at each veteran’s grave.
On Monday afternoon the public is also invited to Memorial Park at 3:30 PM to attend the Good Samaritan Lodge of Freemasons’ gathering where they will raise the six service flags on new flagpoles donated by the organization. The flagpoles, located on the corner of Charles St. and Harrison St., will be formally dedicated on Veterans Day in November 2024.
Residents with questions or who would like to volunteer or assist with cemetery decoration of graves please reach out to Veterans Services Officer Will Valliere 781-942-6652, Email wvalliere@ci.reading.ma.us.
