Memorial Day parades cancelled

Penn Yan will hold virtual ceremony, aired on WFLR and streamed.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional Memorial Day parades in Dresden, Dundee, and Penn Yan will not take place. The Memorial Services in Dresden and Dundee are also cancelled, but the Penn Yan community Memorial Day ceremony will be held virtually, according to a joint announcement from the Johnson-Costello American Legion Post #355 and the Penn Yan VFW Post #745.

The service will be aired on the radio by WFLR at 10 a.m. Monday, May 25, the Memorial Day holiday.  WFLR can be found at 1570 AM and at 96.1, 96.9, and 101.9 FM. The ceremony will also be streamed on fingerlakesdailynews.com.  Also at 10 a.m., church bells throughout Penn Yan will ring. The ceremony can also be accessed at the website for later replay.

Master of ceremonies will be Carrie Ahearn, 1st Vice Commander of the Johnson-Costello Post. Rev. John Busch, Johnson-Costello Post Chaplain, will offer the Invocation. The featured address will be given by Ellen Hey, Legion Post Commander. Some other traditional elements of the annual ceremony will also be included. Johnson-Costello Auxiliary President Lyn Johnson will recite the poem “Flanders Field,” and VFW Auxiliary President Ron Dailey will provide the “Response to Flanders Field.”

Each year’s ceremony includes the reading of the Honor Roll of Yates County Veterans who have died and been transferred to “Post Everlasting” since Memorial Day of the previous year. Phil Rouin, Director to the Yates County Veterans’ Service Agency and Chaplain of the Yates County American Legion, will recite the names of the 44 veterans lost in the past year. The ceremony will conclude with a gun salute rendered by the VFW/American Legion Color Guard under the direction of Captain Andy Swarthout.  Then the ceremony will conclude with “Taps” played by Phil Rouin.

The VFW and Legion thank WFLR for volunteering to provide their facilities to air this service.

Honor Roll

John (Bill) Bailey IV

James M Baker

Leslie Bates

Sheldon Berlyn

Richard Bicksler

John Blach

Franklin Boyce Sr

FloydCarr

James Case

Edward Catlin

Arne Christensen

Albert A Colizzi

Paul Crumlish

William Denison

Robert DeWaters

Leslie A Dinehart

Richard (Dick) Eveland

Fred Ferlito

Steven Fish

Michael Flood

Michael Flynn

Robert Flynn 

Frederick Gee Sr

Berlin “Buzz” Hobart

Robert “Gary” Hopkins

Lester Jensen

Roger Kennerson

John Laurino

Richard Miller

Kenneth Oliver

Ernest Ostroski

William L Phillips

Anthony Pizzenti

Gary Porter

William Bruce Robinson

John Rowe

Russell Scheel

Paul Simmons

Dean Spoor

Joseph Simpson

Robert Smith

John Szklany

Alan Thompson

Glenn Thompson

Edward Tidd Jr

Robert Tyler

Roger Wadsworth

Raymond Welker

Lawrence “Larry” Wise

Ronald Yarusso