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Community Corner

Shrewsbury Honors Those Who Have Fallen

Poems mark the commemoration of Memorial Day at a ceremony at Patriot Isle.

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kickoff to summer. It’s filled with barbeques, family gatherings and lazy days on the beach.

American flags decorate houses and roads, reminding us of the deeper meaning—to honor those who have given their lives in the dedication of preserving the freedom of our nation.  

On Monday, veterans, families, and members of the community gathered at Patriot Isle in Shrewsbury to celebrate Memorial Day.

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Red, white and blue wreathes stood stoically in front of the Patriot Isle plaque that honors those members of the Shrewsbury community who lost their lives in service.  An array of flags proudly decorated the street as the crowd gathered to be part of the celebration.

The Shrewsbury Borough school band played an assortment of patriotic tunes to set the tone for the day. Different generations sauntered up and down the streets, wearing patriotic t-shirts and waving miniature American flags.

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Jim Curley, co—chairperson, US Marine Corps Veteran and Shrewsbury resident, gave the welcome address,  followed by the invocation by Deacon John Fever from the First Assembly of God.

“We stand here as free people in a free country thanks to those who have served,” the Deacon said as the audience was silent with rapt attention.

Tom Moeller then delighted the audience with a historical lesson about Captain Samuel Tucker Sleeper. Sleeper was a Civil War Veteran who died on May 12, 1864, at 41 years of age. He was the only Shrewsbury resident to die in the Civil War, and he is honored by a plaque at Patriot Isle.

Each year, students of Shrewsbury Borough School write essays for a contest entitled “What Memorial Day Means to Me.”  This year, the students tried their hand at poems about the subject, and the winners were selected to read their poems at Patriot Isle. 

“Heroes, fallen heroes, soldiers who died for the USA. The poppies that line the tombstones, on every Memorial Day,” read sixth grade winner Ella Brockway from her poem titled “What Memorial Day Means to Me.”

Seventh grade winner Casey Judge creatively spelled out “Memorial Day” in her poem, beginning each line with a letter and detailing the meaning of the day.

“The bravest people I know/I will never meet, /they sacrifice their lives/to save people they will never greet,” began eighth grade winner Christian Mangold’s poem titled “Memorial Day.”  He went on to beautifully describe the sacrifices that men and women in service make every day for people they don’t even know.

The ceremony closed with the raising of the flag by the Shrewsbury Police Department. In a ceremony that sent chills through the audience, the flag was lifted in all its glory to the top of the flagpole on Patriot Isle and then lowered to half staff to honor those who gave their lives in service to this country.

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