ALLEGANY — A bright morning sun smiled down on the village as local police and the American Legion Color Guard led the annual Memorial Day parade.
Hundreds of people lined West Main Street from the 1st Street intersection to the Town Hall in the center of the village, where the greatest concentration of people were gathered for Charles Harbel Post 892’s Memorial Day ceremony.
Fire and EMS trucks were part of the parade, along with Little League teams, scouting participants, the Allegany-Limestone High School band, American Legion Riders on their motorcycles and other units.
Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski, R-Canisteo, the featured speaker for the event, said he was pleased to be in Allegany on such a bright morning and witness a community committed to honoring the sacrifices of its military men and women.
“What a beautiful day to see this community come together; this is what America is all about,” he said. “And it shows the freedoms that we enjoy. We are so blessed as Americans, we are more blessed than any other people in the history of the world.
“But we only have those blessings, we only have those freedoms to stand here in peace and security because of those who have laid down everything for us,” he said. “And we are so lucky that, generation after generation, heroes have stepped up and are willing to sacrifice all for us, and we know that there are those of future generations that may, sadly, have to do the same.
The assemblyman said part of the honor he feels to represent communities like Allegany throughout his 148th Assembly District is that they understand the sacrifice that has been made by a few for all Americans.
“This community stands in solidarity with those who have fallen and those that they left behind,” Sempolinski added, noting he was pleased to see so many children and young people take part in the day.
The assemblyman echoed Legion chaplain Ray McKinney and the words of Abraham Lincoln in The Gettysburg Address: “That these sacrifices were not in vain. When we think about those sacrifices it can be depressing to think about all the loss, the loss of the potential of those who died in combat. (But) they didn’t feel it was in vain, and our leaders of the past didn’t feel it was in vain, and this gathering, under freedom here in Allegany, proves that those sacrifices were not in vain.”
During the ceremony, the Allegany-Limestone band members performed “America the Beautiful,” while two band members played “Taps” after the firing of the volleys by the Allegany American Legion Ritual Group.
Candace T. Clemens, a Gold Star mother whose son, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Sean M. Clemens was killed in a weapons cache blast in Afghanistan in 2004, was escorted by Legion members and affiliates in laying a wreath at the memorials adjacent to the town hall.
Eight Allegany-Limestone students were recognized for receiving the Achievement Award from the Legion Auxiliary. They were Vincent Amore, Grace Ketchner, Caitlyn Kellogg, Avery McCoy, Elizabeth Giardini, Caleb Strade, Gavin Straub and Brady Straub.
Receiving awards from the Sons of the American Legion were McCoy, Ketchner and Amore, while New York state Girls State participants are Siena Nagle and Madelyn Price-Coster.
Allegany-Limestone’s Jack Filjones is the recipient of the Legion’s Military Award as he is set to enter the U.S. Navy.
