The Concord Veterans Council canceled the city’s annual Memorial Day parade on Thursday, following in the footsteps of other veterans groups across the state.
“We just didn’t want to take a chance of getting a whole bunch of people around each other with all of the restrictions and public health concerns right now,” said Paul Lloyd, president of the Concord Veterans Council. “We can still honor the fallen, we just don’t need to do a parade.”
With Memorial Day still a month away, other towns and cities in the state have also raised concerns about hosting parades during the COVID-19 pandemic, and canceled their planned events to celebrate the holiday.
Officials in Nashua and Seabrook called off their parades earlier this week. The New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetary in Boscawen canceled its annual ceremony a more than month ago, Llyod said.
Lloyd said Manchester’s parade, one of the state’s largest, is on hold for the time being.
Organizers tasked with coordinating social larger events across the state have been in limbo as they try to plan into the summer months.
The Concord Veterans Council, which has organized the parade since 1950, will still put wreaths out on veteran’s monuments in the city on Memorial Day weekend, Lloyd said. Volunteers have already been visiting the city’s 14 cemeteries practicing social distancing as they replace flags near the headstones of service members.
“They’ve been working on that individually for a few weeks, and that will continue until we’re done,” Llyod said.
Lloyd said the parade has been canceled once or twice – each time because of weather – since he joined the council in 2000.
“We’ve been very fortunate to be able to do it every year,” he said.
Participation in the Concord Veterans Council was waning in recent years and in 2017, the group only comprised of three members: Lloyd, a secretary and treasurer. Recently, a few younger veterans, including Lloyd’s stepson, have joined, he said. The group has 20 volunteers working to replace flags in the cemetery.
The veterans council receives $5,000 a year from the city to put on its events.
He said the decision to cancel the Memorial Day parade was not an easy one. The group discussed its plans over the course of several weeks.
In addition to public safety concerns, Lloyd said the veterans group was worried about finding community members who would be able to participate in the parade.
“With school out, they weren’t sure we would be getting school bands,” he said. “Then, it’s just a bunch of people walking down the street. You can’t really have a parade without a band.”