GREEN BAY (NBC26) — Fort Howard Memorial Park brought back its annual Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony after the event was cancelled last year due to the pandemic.
Each year, Fort Howard Memorial Park honors the fallen veterans who were buried in the park that year. Since the event was cancelled in 2020, this year's ceremony honored all of the veterans who have been buried in the park since 2019. In total, there were 103 veteran’s names read off.
The park also puts flags on the graves of all the fallen veterans. Amanda Heidtman, the regional administrator of the park, says there are over 3,100 flags in total.
"It feels really good to be able to see the families," Heidtman said. "It is so nice to know that hopefully, we're coming out of the whole pandemic and social distancing and we can start to honor people and do things like we used to."
The park also has an Avenue of Flags program where the families of fallen veterans can have a flag put up in their honor at the ceremony. Seven flags were put up this year.
For the family of one of those fallen veterans, the ceremony brought a sense of closure. John Belanger a veteran of the U.S Navy, attended the ceremony to honor his father Dean Belanger who also served in the Navy.
"Today was very emotional and in some ways, it was harder than his funeral. I don't know if that's because a little bit of time has passed but it was a very special day," Belanger said. "I just am so appreciative of everything they've done here for him and all the veterans."
