Veterans, family members, and supporters from across the borough will march through Throggs Neck to celebrate the nation’s past and present service men and women at the 24th annual Bronx Veterans Day Parade.
When numerous difficulties arose last year with the permit for the parade, concerns arouse that the same fate would befall the event this year. Now, it has become clear that the parade will go on as planned, for Sunday, November 9 at noon.
According to Pat Devine, commander of the Korony American Legion Post 253, the parade committee has secured permits directly from the Bronx NYPD command.
Devine said the parade will go ahead as scheduled, winding from the corner of E. Tremont and Lafayette avenues to Lawton Avenue, and then the veterans will march east to Bicentennial Veterans Memorial Park via Lawton Avenue.
Devine said that Senator Jeff Klein threw a pre-parade breakfast last year at Villa Barone Manor that drew upwards of 400 people, and will likely attend this year’s breakfast.
“Senator Klein plans on making it an annual event; he did a great job on the breakfast last year,” Devine said. “Senator Klein has already started helping us make this year’s parade a success by reaching out to all types of veterans organizations in his district and at the V.A. Hospital on E. Kingsbridge Road.”
Breakfast for parade participants will be at 9:30 a.m., with formation for marching beginning at 11 a.m.
The ceremony at Bicentennial Veterans Memorial Park will honor the enormous sacrifices that members of the armed services and veterans of foreign wars made in the past and continue to make today, at home and abroad.
This year’s grand marshal will be Kenny Champlin, a longtime advocate of veteran’s affairs.
Champlin joined the Navy at Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn in 1959, and was stationed on the U.S.S. Lake Champlain aircraft carrier for much of his time at sea.
Champlin and his wife Sandy are very active in the Throggs Neck community.
Champlin is one of the lead singers in the St. Benedict’s Church choir, and sings at various military functions, including the national anthem when former Secretary of State and Bronx-native Colin Powell came to the Bronx rotunda.
“Kenny will be the grand marshal, and we have other veterans posts coming in, including one we developed an association with from Bronx Park South,” Devine stated. “We march in their parades, and they march in ours.”
For more information on The Bronx Veterans Day Parade, please call (718) 823-1981.
