Winners Announced for Memorial Day Parade Floats
Best Development of a Theme
League of Women Voters
Best Youth Organization Float
Suzuki Music Schools
Most Creative Float
Westport Paddle Club
Best Community Organization float
Westport Rotary
Most Colorful Float
VFW Auxiliary 399
Best Overall Float
Y’s Men of Westport\Weston
Special “Pep Award”
Staples, Bedford Middle & Coleytown Middle School Bands
Memorial Day Parade Float Judges:
Betty Lou Cummings, Ruth Whelan, Diana Heisinger & Mary Ann Lindwall
Parade Master:
William (Bill) Vornkahl
First Selectman’s Memorial Day Address: “As we emerge from the darkness of the COVID tunnel, it is vital to re-establish our traditions”
First Selectman Jim Marpe gives his address to the crowd in honor of Memorial Day on Veteran’s Green. Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe’s 2021 Memorial Day Address
Thank you to Westport’s “Mr. Parade,” Bill Vornkahl, for helping to organize our Memorial Day Parade once again this year.
Reverend Sinclair, Representatives of VFW Post 399 and American Legion Post 69, Grand Marshal Nick Rossi, and to all of you gathered today. It is my honor to welcome you to our traditional Memorial Day ceremony to remember and honor those who have sacrificed to serve our country. We are very grateful to come together again.
Last year I stood here with just twenty people, including Bill Vornkahl and the leadership of our First Responders, to make sure our tradition was never broken. It wasn’t what we wanted or were used to, but I am glad to say that we continued the Memorial Day remembrance on Veterans Green.
As we emerge from the darkness of the COVID tunnel, it is vital to re-establish our traditions and make sure that as a community we remember those who fought and died for the freedoms we hold dear.
In Westport, the struggle against COVID appears to be in the final weeks, but we remain vigilant. We understand and respect the need to safeguard our own health as well as the health of others. That vigilance is the essence of who we are as a people and what we celebrate and honor today. While the circumstances are different, the vigilance we have borne as our responsibility is akin to the vigilance manifested by the men and women in the armed forces during our wars and conflicts.
WWII was the last war in which people at home were required to sacrifice so dramatically. Gas was rationed, food in short supply. For many, work changed to reflect the needs of war. COVID 19 represented a war in which we have all been challenged to change our lives dramatically. We were all called upon to sacrifice. Some of us were on the front line, caring for the sick, working in dangerous situations, enduring loneliness and separation from families, facing the unknown.
Historically, wherever we perceived enemies to threaten us we have rallied around the cause. Men and women from all walks of life stepped forward to battle threats to our country. COVID 19 was a shocking new threat, and in response, parts of government not historically in the forefront rushed to assist. Not just our usual first responders, to whom we owe a great deal of gratitude, but also our Health District and Human Services Department that reached out to those in our community in particularly grave need.
And we are proud of our children, who have had to change their lives because of COVID. They understand what sacrifice can mean. They have learned to behave in a way that is beneficial to the greater society- their school mates, their teachers, their friends and their families. That change was for us all, unforgettable. Death and illness were real fears, sacrifice and caution were daily watchwords. Remote learning, mask wearing, loss of sporting and performance events, teammates, traditional proms and for so many, the unforgettable pain of the loss of people and loved ones who died. In Westport, we lost 31 people to COVID, and many lost beloved family members who live elsewhere, some to whom they could not say “goodbye” or “I love you.”
The theme of our parade today is honoring women’s veterans. That theme was set for last year’s parade and reinstated for this year. We want to emphasize the critical role women have played in the armed services, at times without the recognition they deserved. We also recognize the critical role women have played in the war against COVID 19, both in and out of the home. In addition to maintaining essential financial support, our mothers have had to keep families as safe as possible and establish a new routine while life was so uncertain.
Last year we intended to honor Patricia Roney Wettach as our Grand Marshal, who, unfortunately, has passed away, a victim of COVID 19. This year we honor Nick Rossi, a relative newcomer to Westport and an active member of our Senior Center, whose grandson, a Staples High School graduate, just sang the National Anthem. Nick, who is 99 years old, was a WWII flight engineer flying multiple missions and was shot at by enemy fire - a notable example of bravery under stress.
And now, as has been our tradition, I would like to make special mention of those military veterans who lived in Westport and who have passed away this past year, with apologies in advance for any we may have inadvertently omitted. Heroes all:
John R. Anastasia, Jr
Alan Meredith Beasley
Sam Brownstein
Charles Joseph French, Sr.
Charles James Kashetta, Sr.
Vincent D. Palumbo
Robert P. Scholl
P. Richard Schwaeber
Jack Shiller
Jules Spring
Gary W. Vannart
Theodore Robert Voss
Patricia Roney Wettach
Kenneth Ray Wolfe, Jr.
I would be remiss if I did not honor others in our community who passed away this year, who, while not veterans, were civil servants and played a significant role in making Westport the great town that it is. These include former First Selectmen Gordon Joseloff and John Kemish, Martha Aasen, former Deputy Police Chief Vinnie Penna, and longtime VFW Auxiliary member Nancy Coley. Like our great veterans, we honor and recognize their special contributions.
Today, we see a reduced presence of all that is traditional for this day, but we are still aware of the lessons learned and the sacrifices we have made. It is a proud day for Westport. I urge you to celebrate this day as one we have looked forward to for a long time – the beginning of the end of the long COVID struggle.
God bless you; God bless Westport and God bless the United States of America.
Thank you.
The Memorial Day Parade Guide: Celebrating a Westport Tradition
The 2021 Westport Memorial Day Parade Route. Start: 9:00 AM [Saugatuck Elementary School]
End: 10:30 AM [Memorial Day Ceremony, Veteran’s Green]
2021 Parade Marshall: Nicholas Rossi, WWII Veteran
2021 Float Contest Theme: Honoring Women Veterans
Line of March:
Honor Division
Col. John Chester Fife & Drum Corps
Westport Police Department
Westport Volunteer EMS
Grand Marshal Nicholas Rossi
World War II Veterans
1st Division
Dignitaries - RTM Members
Westport Community Band
Connecticut Veterans Honor Guard
Joseph J. Clinton Post 399 - Veterans of Foreign Wars
August Matthias Post 63 - American Legion
VFW Auxiliary 399 Westport Float
2nd Division
Nash Drum Corps
Westport Fire Department
Y's Men of Westport/Weston
Westport Baseball – Hawks
Westport Little League Baseball
Westport Little League - Blue Jays
Westport PAL Boys and Girls Lacrosse
Westport Soccer Association
Staples High School Marching Band
Bedford Middle School Marching Band
Coleytown Middle School Marching Band
Staples Tuition Grants
Staples Rugby Club
Assumption Church - Knights of Columbus Council #3688
Suzuki Music Schools
St. Paul Christian School
Westport Woman's Club
3rd Division
Girl Scouts
The League of Women Voters of Westport
Boy Scouts of America
The United Methodist Church of Westport & Weston
Builders Beyond Borders
Westport Paddle Club
Westport Library
Westport Weston Family YMCA
Junior Colonial Fife & Drum Corps of Westbrook, CT
Videos: Tom “Big Red” Leyden’s Videos of the 1981 and 1969 Westport Memorial Day Parades
Thomas Leydon, “Big Red”, was an active Westporter who served the Assumption Church parish for nearly six decades in addition to coaching PAL Pop Warner football and remaining an avid model train collector. Leydon died in July of 2020 at the age of 82 due to an extended illness, leaving a void in the community he so fiercely supported. His YouTube channel holds two time capsules of Westport - videos of both the 1981 and 1969 Memorial Day Parades in Westport.
He shared with us the Parade in 1981, as seen and heard from the steps of Assumption Church on Riverside Avenue, and then the 1969 Parade as seen from the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Evergreen Avenue. Both videos freeze time as Westporters of bygone eras march by the screen. His YouTube channel is still active, and documents the two moments in the community’s history for both new and old Westporters to see the community as it was.