Having to cancel the parade in 2020 due to health concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic has only increased interest according to Parade Master Jon Stewart.
“It’s going to be big, a lot of people,” said Stewart. “We’re planning like any other year. I’m just glad we’re back to having it.”
Stewart anticipates 110 groups and up to 2,000 people with about 200 vehicles as part of the parade.
The veterans theme was an obvious one for Stewart, who counts several members of his family having served. His dad, Jim Stewart, passed away earlier this year and was the parade master since the early 2000s.
Stewart learned and gained experience under his dad and credits others helping make the transition in continuing the parade.
Dale Henry, a U.S. Army veteran, will be the parade grand marshal, an honor he wasn’t able to enjoy a year ago, but looks forward to Monday when he will help lead the way in a 1949 Jeep, the same model famed World War II Gen. George Patton used.
“This is a tremendous honor and privilege to participate, to acknowledge the armed services and to celebrate the beginning of summer,” he said.
The feeling deepened recently when Henry helped fellow veterans place American flags in Ferncliff Cemetery and realized just how many veterans are buried there.
Henry’s own great-grandfather was a Civil War veteran buried there, and Henry helped get a Coloured Troops monument for Black soldiers who served in the Union Army in the Civil War installed at the cemetery. He is also president of the Gammon House, Springfield’s stop on the Underground Railroad.
Larry Shaffer, Clark County Combined Health District director of Environmental Health, said attendees should follow current state health guidelines: Those fully vaccinated can go without a mask, while those who haven’t should wear a mask and socially distance.
Stewart is especially proud that this will be one of the first big events that brings people together as things open up again.
“It’s an event that gets the people of Springfield out with the veterans and the participants,” he said.
For more information, go the Springfield Ohio Memorial Day Parade Facebook page.
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