Veterans Day 2011 is Friday and there won’t be another one exactly like this one for 100 years.
To commemorate 11-11-11, two of Downtown’s cultural institutions and a business club have scheduled activities and events for after the City’s annual parade from the Times-Union Center on Water Street to EverBank Field.
The parade will include senior military officials, active duty and retired military units, veterans groups, local high school marching bands, military organizations, floats and balloons.
This year’s grand marshals are Mayor Alvin Brown, World War II Marine Corps veteran Russell Frame and Maj. Gen. James D. Tyre, assistant adjutant general of the Florida Army National Guard.
“Veterans enrich the character of our city. The annual Veterans Day Parade is a way to show the deepest respect we have for them. These are our friends, neighbors, sisters and brothers who put their lives on the line for our freedom. We owe our military men and women thanks for all they do,” said Brown.
Music is part of the after-parade celebration beginning with the “Veterans Day Picnic & Americana Musicfest” presented by the Southside Business Men’s Club at Metropolitan Park near the end of the parade route.
One band an hour is scheduled from 1-9 p.m., including Will Pearsall, who will open the show, Grandpa’s Cough Medicine at 7 p.m. and Amy Hendrickson & The Prime Directive, who will close the show.
Admission is free and the club will sell $3 beer and $2 hot dogs. Coolers, picnic baskets and lawn chairs are welcome. Proceeds will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.
Music of a different genre will be on stage at 8 p.m. at the Times-Union Center when the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Krajewski, joins the Soldiers Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band for a program of patriotic music.
Selections on the program include “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “God Bless America.”
The concert also will be presented at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Across the river on the Southbank, the Museum of Science & History has scheduled a day of activities from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. for Veterans Day, highlighted by “Victory Begins at Home: Florida During World War II.”
The exhibit details the state’s legacy during the war through firsthand accounts and World War II objects from the Museum of Natural History in Tallahassee, the Jacksonville Historical Society, the private collection of Guest Curator Stephen Cargile and MOSH’s permanent collection.
A documentary film, “Prisoners of War: Stolen Freedom,” will be screened at 3:45 p.m. in the Bryan-Gooding Planetarium. The documentary is a collection of historical footage plus interviews with local veterans who were prisoners of war in World War II.
“Laser Spirit,” a new Cosmic Concert combining patriotic music with the planetarium’s laser light show, will be shown throughout the day.
Guests will have the opportunity to write a postcard to a service member deployed overseas, which will be mailed by the museum, said Kristi Taylor, MOSH communications manager.
“We invite people to walk across the Main Street Bridge and come to the museum after the parade,” she said.
Admission to MOSH on Friday is free for active and retired military personnel and children who present a Jacksonville Public Library card and is $5 for the general public.
For more information about this year’s Veterans Day events, visit www.makeascenedowntown.com.
356-2466
Veterans Day parade route and street closures
The parade will start at 11:01 a.m. on Water Street at the Osborn
Center, then proceed:
• East on Water Street to Independent Drive,
• North on Newnan Street to Bay Street,
• East on Bay Street to Gator Bowl Boulevard,
• Gator Bowl Boulevard to EverBank Field Parking Lot E.
Street Closures on Nov. 11
• All street parking on the parade route will be prohibited from 5 a.m. until the end of the parade about 1 p.m.
• Water Street in front of the Federal Reserve Bank will be closed from 8 a.m. until the end of the parade.
• All other street closures will begin at 9 a.m. This will be a “soft close,” meaning traffic and pedestrians will be allowed in or across the parade route only for work and residential purposes.
• There will be hard closure along the entire parade route beginning at 10:45 a.m., meaning that no one will be allowed in or out along the route until the end of the parade.
• In addition to the parade route closures, Hogan Street from Water Street to the St. Johns River will be closed for the entire day.
Source: Downtown Vision Inc.