Dear Editor,
I want to thank the Gilroy community for coming out on Monday and being a part of the Gilroy Memorial Day group of activities.
First I wish to thank Ray and Terry Cadei for being our Co-Grand Marshals. Great men deserve this great honor.
I would also like to thank our event sponsor Wal-Mart and supporting sponsor Dividend Homes. We also received contributions from South Valley Disposal and the Gilroy Exchange Club.
The remembrance at Gavilan Hills Cemetery hosted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars is always a heartfelt event with Bob Dillon reading the names of those Gilroyans who died in battle. Many thanks to the Gilroy Memorial Day Committee members Wayne Cegelske and Al Schmidt for organizing this event and the flag pole dedication at Christmas Hill Park.
We could not have asked for a better crowd than we had this year. The parade started with the P51s, CalStar and Sheriff helicopters doing flyovers. The floats, horses, band, color guards, kids on bikes and cars, cars and more cars – what a parade. We would like to thank all the groups who participated. Without you and your support, this event would not be possible. I would also like to thank the parade crew. Dion Bracco for his work on the parade. Jeff Orth for getting together the announcers and their scripts with the help of his wife Barbara. Mark and Kurt Jacobsen for running the staging area and making sure all the entries were in the right order. Carl Epolite who put together all the car entries as well as the car show at the park. Thanks to CMAP’s Shawn Mulcare for taping the parade to be shown on CMAP in June. Mark Zappa did a great job as our runner on his motorcycle with the American and POW flags waving in the wind.
The Gilroy Police Department’s VIPs, Reserves and Explorers under the support of Officer Cherie Somavia, made sure the traffic was managed correctly and the event ran as smooth as possible. Her team was going at 6am putting out the cones and barricades with the much appreciated support from Steve Ashford driving the truck and Cresco Equipment Rental which donates all the traffic equipment and the truck we haul it on.
Many thanks to Guaranty RV and their manager Jack Wertz for the use of one of their RV for the day to act as our headquarters at the train depot and at the park.
Helping us at the last minutes when we needed an extra hand was Barbara DeLorenzo. Barbara made sure the park was all set up when the crowd started flowing in and her help was very welcome by everyone on the team.
Our newest team member is Heide Unger who oversaw the PR for the events and also put together the two great bands at the amphitheater.
This team worked very hard for six months to put together the events and I am very lucky to have them working on the Gilroy Memorial Day Committee.
Next year will be our 10th Annual Gilroy Memorial Day and this team will start working on a bigger and better event in the coming months. I want to extend a great big THANK YOU to everyone on the team and in the community for a great Memorial Day.
Craig Gartman, Chairman,
Gilroy Memorial Day Committee
