8:45am UPDATE: We have just read on the Old Lyme Town website that the parade has been cancelled and a ceremony will be held in the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School auditorium at 11 a.m. followed by refreshments at the Lyme Street Fire Station.
Although some other local towns, including Old Saybrook and Essex, have already cancelled their Memorial Day parades and festivities, at the time of writing (7:59 a.m.) Old Lyme’s Annual Memorial Day observance is scheduled to go ahead at 11 a.m. with William V. Appleby, Commander of American Legion Post #41, as Master of Ceremonies.
The grand parade will start promptly at the Lyme Street Fire Station and proceed via Lyme Street and McCurdy Road to the Duck River Cemetery for a memorial service.
The invocation will be given by Father Joseph Ashe of Christ The King Church and the Benediction by the Rev. Mark Robinson of Saint Ann’s Episcopal Church. Chaplain Mervin Francis Roberts, Chaplain for the Old Lyme Fire Department, will offer a homily.
Following the program, the parade will re-form and return to the fire station where refreshments will be available to all parade participants.
The winners of an essay contest on “What Memorial Day Means To Me” will read their essays as part of the cemetery program.
Returning for this year’s celebration are the Lyme and Old Lyme Fire Departments, a contingent from the Connecticut National Guard and music provided by the Lyme-Old Lyme High School and Middle School Bands along with Deep River Senior Drum Corps and the New London Firefighters Pipes and Drums. A number of marching units representing local civic groups from Lyme, Old Lyme and Old Saybrook will also participate.
Parade participants are asked to report to the fire station not later than 10:30 a.m. for assignment to positions in the line of march, which will form on the access road behind the fire station.
The Memorial Day observance is sponsored by the Town of Old Lyme, the Old Lyme Fire Department, American Legion Post # 41 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #1467. In the event of rain, the parade will be canceled and an appropriate ceremony will be conducted at the Middle School Auditorium at 11 a.m. followed by refreshments at the Lyme Street Fire Station.