06/03/08

LIFE IN METHUEN


Methuen Ranger Band on Parade in D.C.

Kathleen Corey Rahme

Methuen ranger band on display in D.C.   Memorial Day 2008 will certainly be memorable for the Methuen High School Ranger Band. Representing the Common-wealth of Massachusetts, the 91 members of the 112 member band performed at the fourth annual National Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C..

The trip was in the works for about a year and thanks to Fine Arts Director Tom Walters and MRBPA president Ken DesLauriers, it became a reality. The band engaged in various fundraising efforts such as candy bars, calendars, and poinsettias along with private donations which they are still accepting.

“To watch these kids walk through the monuments was overwhelming,” says DesLaurier. “They went through them with such reverence. It really affected them.” The band had the good fortune of meeting two of the only five surviving, WWII Navajo Code Talkers at the Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day. They were able to speak to them and they each got to shake hands and thank them. They also saw a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns as well as the Changing of the Guard.

The trip was filled with exciting tours of Washington including the Holocaust Museum, the Kennedy Center, all the War Memorials, John Philip Sousa’s house and the National Cathedral.

Donned in their new band uniforms, the band took to Constitution Avenue playing songs that have wooed Methuenites of late as prepared by Dan Lutz of UMass Lowell. While conspicuously missing from the local Memorial Day parade, the band did our city, state and their families proud this past Memorial Day. Judy Souza in the band office said the students’ behavior was stellar!

Sharing the street with the likes of Honorary Marshall Mickey Rooney, WWII veteran and Bronze Star recipient, the Methuen Ranger Band, unit number 111 of the 170 groups on parade were escorted by the Methuen High School JROTC honor/color guard. Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna were also on hand. The friends and family from Methuen who attended the parade positioned themselves in front of the National Archives Building across from the grand stand of review.

Also in the parade were members of the 101st   Airborne Division veterans, veter-ans from the Battle of the Bulge, survi-vors of the Beirut barracks that was bombed in 1983, Viet Nam veterans, Buf-falo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen, Korean War veterans, Miss America 2007, four Medal of Honor recipients, and re-enactors of the civil war and various actors playing the roles of presidents Teddy Roosevelt, FD Roosevelt, Abe Lincoln and George Washington.

 Motorcycle enthusiasts Rolling Thunder was there in the 400,000’s. Edith Shain the nurse, who was photographed, being kissed on V-J Day in Times Square, was also there! Our own New England Caring for Our Military, director Jim Wareing, was supposed to be among those on parade but he was in the White House facilitating a private meeting with President Bush for the families of Sergeant Alex Jimenez and Pfc. Byron Fouty both missing in action.

Being in DC for the Memorial Day festivities is something my family will never forget. I would like to thank the MRBPA and the parent volunteers for chaperoning our students on this trip. Congratulations to the Methuen High School Ranger Band for always being wonderful ambassadors of of our city.

Job well done!  

Kathleen Corey Rahme is the former City Councilor in Methuen, is the founder of the Methuen Youth Corps., and hosts “Call to Serve.” You can email her at kcorey rahme@comcast.net  or call 978-686-0008

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All pictures and material are
(C) copyright, Valley Patriot, Inc., 2008



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