Lima Memorial Day Parade to return with surprises

Yahoo

21-05-2025

May 20—LIMA — A few special things will be in store for attendees at this year's Lima Memorial Day Parade.
The event will start at 10 a.m. Monday, May 26, moving from Northland Plaza toward downtown along North Main Street and featuring a full military section, national anthem singers and a larger celebration afterward.
"We're really focused on why the parade takes place," Friends of Lima organizer Aaron Poling said. "I don't want to lose sight of why we're doing the Memorial Day Parade. So we have a full military section that is very serious and it will be very impactful for those that have served so we can show them honor."
Poling and his wife Adena said it is important to them to follow in the tradition of her father Mark Moore, who organized the parade for 30 years.
"He had lost his leg in Vietnam and we went three or four years without having a parade because he never chose his replacement and we'd never done a parade before," Aaron Poling said. "We figured we had gone too many years with it and we jumped in with two feet and we'd do it the rest of our lives. We wanted to do it as an homage to Mark Moore and those who had the privilege to serve."
The parade will line up at 9 a.m., but when it will start an hour later when singers at each intersection along the route break into the national anthem.
About 20 minutes later, there will be a military flyover.
"This year is different from last year," Poling said. "We'll have an after-parade party at the Central District Building where they've got all the construction done. There will be lots of parking and we will be roasting two pigs at The Social House."
The band Never Again will perform from 1 to 5 p.m. at the event and a wreath-laying ceremony will take place at the American Legion Post 96.
The party, set to start at noon, saw 10,000 people attend in 2024, but Poling said he anticipates that number to increase by 50 percent.
To apply to be in the parade, visit bit.ly/3H0kEOJ.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
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