On Monday, May 25, American Legion Post 118 held a beautiful Memorial Day ceremony at their headquarters at the corner of 91st Street and 89th Avenue.  We'd heard much about their "garden of remembrance" -- a memorial garden containing over 650 Crosses or Stars of David -- each representing a local veteran who is no longer with us.  We're a bit ashamed to admit that we'd never seen it in person, but today we rectified this oversight.  The garden is immediately visible as you walk towards the Legion Hall on 89th Avenue (see below). 

As you reach the corner, and the whole front yard becomes visible, you begin to realize the enormous task it must be to put this garden together.  But, those who gathered today, and those who spoke, made it clear that this was a labor of love.    

Below is the archway above the door to the American Legion.  One of the members there told us that this was fairly new.  Throughout the yard there were many different dedications and memorials.  Today wasn't the appropriate forum to take a tour -- we will save that for another day and, hopefully, one of the members will be kind enough to take us around. 

As noted above, each member was remembered by either a Cross, or a Star of David, reflecting their religious background. 

On a personal note, those that serve our country - particularly in a time of war - display a form of courage and bravery we can barely comprehend or express adequately in words.  Through the efforts of Post 118, and the valued assistance from the ROTC of Franklin K. Lane High School, a picture such as the following lessens the needs for words.     

The program began and a few members took to the microphone to address the crowd.  It was a beautiful day - the sun was out but not overbearing.

As the program commenced, an interesting thing happened.  A number of people who were simply passing by, paused to see what the crowd was gathered for.  A few kids, who were across the street in P.S. 60 Park playing ball, came across to see what was going on.  We saw a number of people join the crowd, but we didn't see a single person leave. 

And so, as the ceremony continued, the crowd continued to grow.  And it was a nice crowd, very responsive as you'll see in the video below.

Let's take a quick break from the pictures, and see our video coverage of the ceremony:

Beautiful, wasn't it?  As mentioned in the video, the Franklin K. Lane ROTC was largely responsible for getting the garden prepared for this ceremony, and they were on hand to take care of our flag. 

And, a you can see, there were a number of veterans taking part in the ceremony, and in amongst the crowd of spectators.

Afterwards, a few ceremonial wreaths were placed at the foot of the monument, and folks posed for pictures before heading inside for refreshments.

Here is the monument after the ceremony, with the wreaths.

And one final look at the monument.  Overall, a wonderful ceremony -- a fitting tribute -- and we were honored to be a small part of it. 

Special thanks to Joe Virgona for the use of some of his photographs.  Whether he knows it or not, Joe just became Project Woodhaven's first freelance photographer :-) 

If you have any comments, or would like to suggest other projects, drop us a line at info@projectwoodhaven.com or projectwoodhaven@aol.com.  

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