Remembering Heroes With Salutes, Sounds and Syrup
With the morning marine layer vanishing before noon, throngs of visitors already are arriving in town prior to this weekend’s holiday, where Memorial Day and the unofficial start of summer kicks off with a pancake breakfast, patriotic pageantry and a beach concert.
Allan Mansoor, the state Assemblyman representing the 74th District, will be the keynote speaker at a Memorial Day ceremony conducted by Laguna Beach’s American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars on Monday, May 27, in Heisler Park.
The 11 a.m. ceremony in remembrance of comrades who died in conflicts protecting the nation will take place at Monument Point, behind the Sept. 11 memorial. Patriotic music will begin at 10:30 a.m. The public is invited to come early, as seating is limited.
Many organizations place floral offerings around the base of the monument. Organizers ask that arrangements include the organization’s name.
Preceding the ceremony, the Exchange Club sets out an outdoor pancake and sausage breakfast from 7 to 10:30 a.m. at the park’s picnic area near Myrtle Street. Firefighters flip pancakes while cops pour coffee for the $5 breakfast, provided by the White House and Las Brisas restaurants, says organizer Sande St. John.
Violinist Doug Miller, singer-guitarist Rosie Morreale, wish fairy Jessica DeStefano and bagpipe player Dave Lopez will entertain the scores of residents dining al fresco. Proceeds from breakfast are donated to child abuse prevention programs and community and youth projects, the club’s Jim Rue said.
More formal entertainment strikes up from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., with the Laguna Concert Band’s Memorial Day performance on the cobblestones of Main Beach, also on Monday, May 27.
Dressed in their summer red and tan outfits, the band will strike the patriotic tones with well-known Sousa marches led by founding conductor Bill Nicholls, a fife and drum feature, tunes from “The Music Man,” the Laguna Beach “weather report” with conductor Pete Fournier and a peek “Over the Rainbow” with sax virtuoso Gary Gould.
For more information about the ceremony, contact Richard Moore at 949-376-6340 or Dave Connell at 949-494-2065.
