Sheboygan Memorial Day Parade Revived

From the Sheboygan Press:

Three days after a veterans group canceled the parade for lack of participants, Mayor Juan Perez said Thursday he was creating a new community organization called Honor America that would take the lead on staging the event.

"If there's only one little float out there, we're nonetheless going to support our armed forces," Perez said. "From my standpoint, it definitely is (on)."

On Monday, the Vietnam Veterans of America Sheboygan Chapter 618 canceled the parade, an annual event since at least the 1950s, because not enough people had committed to being in it. The decision to cancel led to indignation from local participants and spectators and global interest in the parade.

On Thursday, Perez met with military veterans and former parade organizers, aldermen and city officials to discuss how to proceed.

During the meeting, former parade organizers including Mike Liebelt of the now-defunct United Military Association of Sheboygan, which organized the Memorial Day parade until it disbanded last year, gave Perez a list of potential parade participants and a to-do list to set up the parade. Liebelt said it he was happy that the community responded to the cancellation like it did.

"I was glad to see it happen," he said. "It was an extremely difficult decision that they made, to cancel this, because it's been going on for some time. It's a wake-up call. I think people have gotten a little bit complacent and there's a little bit of apathy out there."

Honor America will meet next week to plan the parade and the ceremony afterward at Fountain Park, Perez said. The group will contact organizations that had already agreed to participate and reach out to others.

"We expect to be pretty aggressive," Perez said. "If we can get the 14 who already made a commitment and get another five or six, that's 20 (units) — that's a good parade," he said.

Needless to say, this was the right thing to do.

It's somewhat troubling that earlier in the week Mayor Juan Perez was willing to let the parade die this year, saying that he hopes the parade can return next year.

Hope doesn't cut it. It takes action to get things done.

Thanks to the people who stepped up to keep the parade rolling THIS YEAR.