The marching bands have stopped playing. The candy has all been eaten. The solemn salutes are completed.

The 141st edition of the Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day has come and gone, another amazing accomplishment for the nation’s longest, continuously running Memorial Day parade.

But this success didn’t happen overnight.

Each and every Lawrence Countian should say a word of thanks to the volunteers with the parade committee, a group who donates hours and hours of their time for months to make this event what it is.

They sacrifice countless evenings to meet to iron out all the details. Many make monetary commitments to ensure the group can meet all its goals. And they stand for hours in the hot sun on Memorial Day, making sure that the parade rolls along as smoothly as possible.

We also owe thanks to the Boy Scouts and other volunteer groups that help with the massive undertaking of cleaning up the mess. Ironton’s city workers deserve tremendous praise as well for their work in making the city shine and then returning it to that condition after 20,000 people have come and gone.

If we could see anything changed about the parade, it would be that every single person in attendance take the same level of pride that these volunteers and workers do.

If each person would ensure that their own trash is picked up before they leave, it would be a noticeable impact on our community.

Even if you didn’t attend the parade or don’t care about it, you should say a word of thanks to those who put it on because they represented our community well, honored our veterans and made us all proud to call Lawrence County home.