The annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Blackford Walking Trail and Veterans Memorial has been cancelled this year.
Organizer Brent Witherspoon said spring rains, couple with delays in preparation due to prolonged clean-up from January’s ice storm, have made a mess of the area where service is held, particularly the parking lot.
“I hate to do it, because I love doing this,” Witherspoon said today. “I'd rather not get people over there and get them in a mess.”
The Memorial Day service was initially planned for May 23 at the Walk of Honor, an area dedicated to local veterans of all wars. Witherspoon said the spring rains that have already fallen, in addition to weekend rains forecast at the time he made the decision today to forgo the services, just made it too risky to ensure adequate parking.
Instead, Witherspoon is encouraging usual visitors to the ceremony to attend a barbecue dinner May 23 scheduled as a benefit for injured Iraq War veteran Chase Matthews of Dycusburg. The organizer of the Blackford services, who himself was injured in the Vietnam War, plans to attend the fund-raiser in Marion.
