Colfax Memorial Day festivities canceled due to coronavirus

Memorial Day is a time to remember service members who have died while serving in the armed forces.

What usually provides a day for honoring service members who died serving their country, Memorial Day services in Colfax have been canceled due to the ongoing pandemic. It was announced the usual ceremonies and festivities will not be held by Colfax AMVETS Post 50 and American Legion Post 175 this year.

“The decision has been made to place the downtown flags for memorial day and leave until flag day (and) will try to get flags on the veterans tombstones. No flags along the road to the cemetery and into the cemetery. No ceremony, no parade, no meal,” AMVETS commander David Mast said.

The decision to not have the normal events this year was not made lightly. With coronavirus still gripping Iowa, AMVETS and American Legion Post Adjutant Randy Marchant said to have the ceremonies and events would go against current social distancing guidelines.

“It would be pretty difficult to put on activities that day where we aren’t grouped together,” Marchant said.

While the normal ceremonies will not be held this year, Marchant said there will be a small group of people that will be going out and doing what they can to honor service members this Memorial Day.

“There is going to be two or three of us that will get together and put the flags out in the downtown area of the city. The flags are a big representation of what we have going on and so we want to give them that much,” Marchant said.

Not only will there be a small group of people going out and doing things for Memorial Day Marchant said he hopes people can do their own small things to honor veterans. Whether that means just going to the cemetery and visiting your loved one, even a small gesture means a lot.

“You can go down here to the park where the veterans monument is and look over the names and you’d be surprised how many people you might already know,” Marchant said.

This day comes around once a year to honor service members who have given their lives. Whether it is by placing a flag outside of a home or taking a moment to remember a loved one who died while serving everyone can honor those veterans a little differently this Memorial Day.

“There has been more lives than we could keep count of that have sacrificed for our nation,” Marchant said.

Contact Dustin Teays at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or dteays@newtondailynews.com