MARTIN, Mich. \u2014 The village of Martin held its annual Memorial Day Parade on Monday morning, bringing the community and visitors together to honor veterans and fallen heroes. Hundreds lined the streets of downtown Martin to watch the procession, which remains a cherished tradition in the area.<\/p>\n
Despite facing significant challenges just days earlier, when an EF1 tornado tore through the region late on May 16, the village prioritized the parade, underscoring its importance to residents. The storm caused widespread damage along 114th Avenue and 16th Street and left much of the village covered in debris.<\/p>\n
\u201cA week ago, you could not even see down this street,\u201d said Martin resident Kevin Dekoekkoek. \u201cEvery tree was lined with brush and materials. I thought there was no way we\u2019d get power for days and days. You either step up or step back, and this community steps up every time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Veterans and families traveled from nearby communities to take part in the event. Kim Stevens, a Martin resident and Army veteran, expressed the village\u2019s deep appreciation for those who served. \u201cWe love our vets, and we make a big deal on Memorial Day for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mark Heather, a Marine Corps veteran from Allegan, has made the trip to Martin every year for nearly two decades. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t built without sacrifice,\u201d Heather said. \u201cI was lucky to go through the service and not make the ultimate sacrifice, but so many did, so we can do things like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heather and his family maintain a tradition of driving in a \u201ctrain of cars\u201d from Allegan to Martin for the parade. \u201cTo me, that\u2019s what America is all about and why I choose to come here every year for this parade,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
State Representative Rachelle Smit, R-Shelbyville, was among the speakers at the event. She praised the community\u2019s resilience and the efforts of local businesses and volunteers who worked swiftly to clean up after the tornado.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of support that business owners and community people came out and cleaned this up was unbelievable,\u201d Smit said.<\/p>\n
Following the parade, attendees gathered at the Geib Veterans Memorial for a tribute ceremony honoring Martin\u2019s active military members, veterans, and fallen heroes. Army Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Martin reflected on the parade\u2019s significance. \u201cThis parade has been a part of my life for a long time, so coming home every year is so important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The ceremony concluded with the raising of the flag and a final salute, serving as a solemn reminder that those who have fallen will never be forgotten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MARTIN, Mich. \u2014 The village of Martin held its annual Memorial Day Parade on Monday morning, bringing the community and visitors together to honor veterans and fallen heroes. Hundreds lined the streets of downtown Martin to watch the procession, which remains a cherished tradition in the area. Despite facing significant challenges just days earlier, when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3123,"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3115\/revisions\/3123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandrapidspost.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}