The Everett Police and Fire department color guards march in the Memorial Day parade.
After decades of paying respect to fallen soldiers from Everett and elsewhere around the country at Everett cemetery, the city’s annual Memorial Day services moved to the newly established Veterans Plaza at the entrance of Everett Memorial Stadium on Monday and the change seemed to help draw a bigger crowd.
More than a dozen elected officials were joined by another dozen school officials and a crowd numbering close to 100, as Everett Veterans Director Joseph Hickey and Mayor Carlo DeMaria showed off the new Veteran’s Plaza on Revere Beach Parkway.
“At first, I wasn’t sure about moving the ceremony from the cemetery,” Mayor DeMaria admitted to the crowd. “I like tradition and I didn’t know if it was a good idea to change it. . .but this is where this belongs.”
Newly elected State Representative Wayne Matewsky also referenced the change in venue and noted, “it seems to have helped us get a bigger crowd this year.”
The annual ceremony prominently featured Everett’s Pride, with the Everett High School Marching Band playing during the short parade from the Connolly Center to Everett Stadium and Everett High senior Lindsay Maher offering one of the key guest speeches, along with Superintendent of Schools Frederick Foresteire and School Committee Chairman Allen Panarese.
But after all the speeches, including those from State Senator Sal DiDomenico and State Representative Wayne Matewsky and others, the quiet dignity that has been created at Veterans Plaza was the perfect place for the city’s residents to come together to remember its sons and daughters who have given their lives to protect the freedom of our nation.