In the City of Ironton, Memorial Day is second to none when it comes to celebrating any holiday.

To have the longest running Memorial Day parade in the nation says a lot about how we as a community come together to show our patriotism and honor our veterans.

After 15 months in a worldwide pandemic, a lot of sacrifices have been made by our community and our nation to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, our traditions were not sacrificed.

Although, by unpopular demand, a small sacrifice was made by our community to have a downscaled parade with limited spectators in 2020.

However, that small sacrifice has paid off tremendously and we can now get back to some normalcy, starting with the Memorial Day Parade this year.

I am so grateful of all of the hard work that our parade committee has put in over the years. The planning and organization that goes into making this event a success comes from the passion these folks have for our veterans’ community.

No other community does it like Ironton when it comes to celebrating our veterans throughout Memorial Day weekend.

This Memorial Day, I challenge everyone to step out and show thanks to someone from our veterans’ community. These folks have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation so we can have such wonderful things, like the events we have over Memorial Day weekend.

I am so proud to serve such a patriotic community as mayor, and I will continue to do my best for the city and our veterans’ community.

Be safe and have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Samuel Cramblit II is the mayor of Ironton.