Veteran’s Ceremony Saturday at Illinois Veteran’s Home

This Saturday is Veteran’s Day in the United States. There will be ceremonies all across this great country of ours. What makes this country great are all the freedoms each and every one of us have thanks to our Veterans. So when the opportunity presents itself to thank a veteran, please do.

There is no better opportunity to do that locally than going to the Veteran’s Day ceremony at the Illinois Veteran’s Home in Quincy. That ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. at Lippencott Hall this Saturday. This hour long ceremony will conclude at the 11th hour of the 11^th day of the 11th month, the exact time 99 years ago when World War One came to an end in 1918.

During the event, the Quincy Notre Dame High School Band and Concert Chorale will be performing plus there will be a keynote address from Army Veteran Dr. Travis Moore.

I have been honored to be the Master of Ceremonies for the event for the past few years. Unfortunately, this event is attended by a predominantly older crowd and that needs to change. As the years go by, these people are leaving us and with their passing these crowds diminish even more. It is critical that the students of today attend these activities.

Saturday students will have the day off. How many students do you think will observe the day? I think you know how many.  My guess is it will be very few. This has been the case for the last several years yet, even with school out, there will be very few young people at the Veteran’s ceremony and with the exception of the QND Band and Concert students, I suspect that will be the case Saturday as well.

Today’s students need to think of what life might be like now if we had lost the war to Germany or lost the war to Japan. Maybe then, they might cherish their freedoms more and understand how important our Veterans are to us and have been for our freedoms and our country.