By Carol P. Bartold, Senior Reporter

May 24, 2017: The annual Bronxville Memorial Day celebration, well under way with Bronxville School PTA events, continues throughout this week and will culminate with the annual Memorial Day parade and commemoration.

The commemoration begins on Monday, May 29, at 9:00 am with a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorials in Leonard Morange Square. Grand Marshal Donald Gray will give the signal for parade units, lined up on Parkway Road, to begin their march through the downtown business district to the front lawn of The Bronxville School, where they will gather for the annual ceremony to honor America's war dead and veterans.

Amy Korb, co-chair of the Bronxville School PTA Memorial Day celebration, along with Linda Pagano and Betsy Putnam, stated that extensive planning for the PTA events began in September of 2016. Each co-chair, she said, had specifically delineated areas of responsibility.

Each event, she said, has its own coordinator. She, Pagano, and Putnam worked with the coordinators to set up events and negotiate contracts with vendors. Two of the most vital elements for a successful slate of events, she noted, are recruiting of volunteers and getting the word out through effective public relations.

Korb noted that the events are a true community-wide celebration. "The country fair, especially, provides a good connection between the community and the school. But we look at all the events as a way to bring our community together."

This week, Jim Palmer, village administrator, and Mary Ann Magliato, deputy registrar of vital statistics, are putting the final plans in place for the parade.

Magliato reports that Vito Pinto, former director of Westchester County Veterans Service Agency and a member of American Legion Leroy Gregory Post 979 in Eastchester, will march in this year's parade, along with veterans from Bronxville, Tuckahoe, and Eastchester.

Parade units from the Bronxville community scheduled to appear in the parade include The Bronxville Women's Club, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, the Bronxville Beautification Council, The Bronxville Historical Conservancy, Gramatan Village, and the Bronxville Chamber of Commerce.

Classic cars, courtesy of The Bronxville Historical Conservancy, and living historians from the 5th New York Regiment will also be part of the parade.

Musical groups X Factor Drumline, vocal group SHA!cappella, Patriot Brass, and the Sword of Light Bagpipe Band will perform in the parade as well as at the commemoration.

Following the parade will be Bronxville Mayor Mary C. Marvin's speech and commemoration of the war dead on the front lawn of The Bronxville School at around 9:45 am. There will then be a dedication ceremony that includes the unveiling of a plaque on the lawn of Bronxville Village Hall that will be the first official recognition that Bronxville was home to President John F. Kennedy's family from 1929 to 1941. 

A service at the Bronxville Presbyterian Church Cemetery will conclude the village's Memorial Day events.

Click here for a listing of Memorial Day events sponsored by the PTA, the Village of Bronxville, and the Town of Eastchester, here for an article about the grand marshal of the parade, here for an article about the dedication ceremony honoring the Kennedy family's residence in Bronxville from 1929 to 1941, and here for an article about the Town of Eastchester Memorial Day events.

Pictured here:  Memorial Day parade in Bronxville in a past year.

Photo by A. Warner