By Joe Siegel
Seekonk is now one of the 200 communities in Massachusetts to carry the Purple Heart designation.
Select Board Chair Gary Sagar read a proclamation at Wednesday’s Veterans Day ceremony. Sagar said August 7 will now be recognized as Purple Heart Day in Seekonk.
Al Varelas, a Marine Corps. Veteran, explained the history of the Purple Heart and honored the veterans who have been awarded with one. ItA is presented in the name of the president to members of the U.S. Armed Forces who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917.
For the sixth year, a “rolling parade” preceded the ceremony at the Veterans Memorial Park on Newman Avenue.
Barry Murphy, a member of the Seekonk Veterans Council, read a proclamation signed by Governor Maura Healey.
Other speakers included Veterans Service Officer James LaFlame, State Rep. Steve Howitt, R-Seekonk, State Senator Kelly Dooner, R-Taunton, E.J. McQuade, the Director of the Providence VA, and poet Margie Rieske.
“We honor our veterans not through words but through actions,” Howitt said, adding “we honor those who returned home and those who never made it home.”
“Our veterans are the reason I get to stand here as a State Senator,” Dooner said. “It’s easy to take for granted the luxury we have because of the veterans. Thank you will never be enough.”
Chaplain John Amaral delivered the Invocation.
Sheila Humphrey Zuccarello sang the National Anthem.
LaFlame read off the names of those veterans who were killed in action.
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