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Courtesy of Freeport Square Gallery
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Courtesy of Freeport Square Gallery
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Courtesy of Freeport Square Gallery
VETERANS DAY EVENTS
SUNDAY
BERWICK – Several Maine veterans will speak about defending the Constitution at "Every Day is Veterans Day," sponsored by the Maine Center for Constitutional Studies and the Oathkeepers Project of Maine. The event will be held 2 to 4 p.m. at the Berwick Town Hall Auditorium, 11 Sullivan St.
LEWISTON – There will be a 4 p.m. ceremony honoring veterans at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, 190 Birch St. The schedule includes music by an Army band, a guest speaker, a color guard from the Franco-American War Veterans and the U.S. Navy Color Guard from Brunswick. A Maineiacs game will follow.
WEDNESDAY
PORTLAND – The annual Portland Veterans Day parade will begin at 10:30 a.m. in Longfellow Square and make its way down Congress Street. The parade ends with the laying of wreaths in front of City Hall.
FREEPORT – Maine veterans showcase their artwork through Nov. 29 at Freeport Square Gallery on Main Street (one block north of L.L. Bean). On Nov. 11, there will be a special ceremony, beginning with speeches at 10 a.m., followed by a flag ceremony at 11 a.m. An artists' reception begins at 4 p.m. and a poetry reading at 7 p.m. On-site tours of the Vet Center Mobile Unit will be available.
GRAY – Free admission for U.S. military personnel and veterans at the Maine Wildlife Park, 56 Game Farm Road. Gates open at 9:30 a.m., and admissions close at 4 p.m. For more information, call 287-8000.
WISCASSET – At 9 a.m., the Bradford Sortwell Wright American Legion Post 54 will hold a special service at the Veterans Monument in front of the municipal building, 51 Bath Road.
MILO/BROWNVILLE – All area veterans and their families are invited to the annual Veterans Day dinner at the Milo Town Arts Center, 6 Pleasant St. The doors close at 11:30 a.m., and at 11:45 a.m., the American Legion Post 41 of Milo will perform an MIA/POW ceremony. The meal, sponsored by Three Rivers Kiwanis, begins at noon. The Milo Elementary School Singers will be performing for the veterans, and local schoolchildren are making individual placemats.
BANGOR – The second annual Veterans Day pancake breakfast will be held 7 to 11 a.m. at Brewer Auditorium, 203 State St. Cost is $7 for adults and $4 for children under 12.
• The Maine Troop Greeters will be honored at the 14th Annual Distinguished Citizens Dinner held by the Katahdin Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America at 6 p.m. at the Bangor Civic Center, 100 Dutton St. The Maine Troop Greeters are part of a non-profit organization whose members greet troops arriving at Bangor International Airport day or night, rain or shine. For more information on the dinner, call 866-2241.
GARDINER – The Gardiner Elks Lodge, 148 Cobbossee Ave., will host a public ticket auction 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. to raise money for the Togus Trolley, which transports patients from the parking lot at the Togus VA Medical Center. For a $3 donation, participants will receive six raffle tickets, coffee, tea and dessert. Drawings start at 6:30 p.m. Additional tickets are available for purchase.
LEWISTON-AUBURN AREA – From 7 to 8 a.m., the Lewiston High School U.S. Army Cadet program will hold its third annual free Veterans Day breakfast for veterans and their families. Culinary arts students will be serving eggs, ham, beans, biscuits, coffee, juice, water and fruit. The school is at 156 East Ave.
• At 9:30 a.m., color guard units from various veterans groups, the police department and the fire department will do a pass and review at the Lewiston Armory, 65 Central Ave. At 10 a.m., local high school bands will participate in a musical tribute to veterans. At 12:15 p.m., six firehouses will serve – what else? – firehouse chili and cornbread at the William Rogers American Legion Post 153 on Broad Street in New Auburn. The first crockpot to hit bottom will win. The fire department color guard will hold a brief ceremony.
• At 1:30 p.m. in Veterans Memorial Park, 2 Main St., Lewiston, the 18th veterans memorial stone will be unveiled, bringing the number of veterans' names in the park to 3,887. (Each stone has 216 names carved into it.) The park will also be adding a memorial bench dedicated to Robert E. Buchanan, a veteran of World War II who served in the Pacific. At 6:30 p.m., there will be a service honoring veterans at Holy Family Church, 607 Sabattus St., Lewiston.
CARIBOU – Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap will be the keynote speaker at an 11 a.m. ceremony at the Maine Veteran's Memorial Cemetery, 37 Lombard Road.
VARIOUS TOWNS – Veterans and active-duty military eat free at Applebee's with proof of service.
NOV. 14
FREEPORT – Veterans Craft Show and Sale, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Freeport Square Gallery, Main Street (one block north of L.L. Bean).
When people think of Veterans Day, they think parades.
Sure, Maine will have parades on Wednesday, including the annual Portland Veterans Day Parade that begins at Longfellow Square at 10:30 a.m. and marches down Congress Street to City Hall.
But there are plenty of other interesting options this year for celebrating veterans and the sacrifices they have made for our country.
The Veteran Centers of Maine, for example, have showcased their members' artwork over the years in small shows scattered around the state. This year, all the art will be in one place – the Freeport Square Gallery on Main Street, a block north of L.L. Bean.
The show began Wednesday and runs until Nov. 29, and includes art, some of it war-related, from veterans and current military personnel. There are also some posthumous works.
The public will be able to meet some of the artists at a Veterans Day reception that begins at 4 p.m., followed by a poetry reading at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Learn about the oath Maine veterans have taken to defend the U.S. Constitution at "Every Day is Veterans Day," a new program being sponsored by the Maine Center for Constitutional Studies and the Oathkeepers Project of Maine. All the speakers at the event, which will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Berwick Town Hall Auditorium, will be veterans.
The Maine Center for Constitutional Studies is a nonpartisan education and outreach program that teaches people about the philosophies of the founders and how ordinary citizens can have a voice in their government, according to Kenneth Capron, head of the organization.
The group formed earlier this year and already has 130 members. They've held a forum on ballot issues and had a one-day training session for people who want to learn how to approach the Legislature.
"People don't know," Capron said. "Most people have never been to the State House, which is unfortunate."
The group's Veterans Day program will launch its "Oathkeepers Project," part of a national effort to remind people of the oath veterans took to defend the Constitution and to honor them for their service.
"They are the ultimate defenders of the Constitution," Capron said, "so we're just trying to bring that point back to their attention and make sure they know how much we appreciate their efforts to defend us."
Every veteran has a story to tell, and many will be told at the unveiling of the 18th memorial stone in Lewiston's Veterans Memorial Park at 1:30 p.m. on Veterans Day. Each memorial stone is carved with the names of 216 veterans.
One of the names being added this year is Henry Poisson of Turner, who served in an engineer battalion in France during Word War II. Poisson's battalion was charged with building a bridge across the Moselle River so that tanks could cross the following day, according to Paul Bernard of the L&A Veterans Council Inc., which is sponsoring Lewiston-area Veterans Day activities.
"Well, they started crossing the Moselle river, and they were almost on land," Bernard said. "All of a sudden, the spotlights came on, and it was full of Germans with spotlights and machine guns, and they just started gunning them right down in the water. There was no place to go.
"Mr. Poisson, whose name will be on this (memorial) stone, he took his backpack off and all his gear, and he went back and forth with a life raft and brought 20 guys to safety on his own. He was even presented with a medal from France."
That's just one veteran, and one story.
There are now almost 4,000 names listed on the memorial stones in the park, "which means there's 4,000 stories," Bernard said, "and some are just unbelievable, the acts of heroism."
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
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