Memorial Day in Sebastopol

The VFW, the fire department and the Boy Scouts all played their parts.

Gratitude and poetry for the fallen at the VFW Memorial Day Ceremony at Sebastopol Memorial Lawn cemetery on Bodega Avenue. (Photos by Laura Hagar Rush)

Memorial Day dawned bright and clear in Sebastopol this morning. The Sebastopol Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3919 had their annual Memorial Day ceremony at Sebastopol Memorial Lawn at 11 am. The event drew a crowd of about 80 people, including Mayor Diana Rich.

VFW members read poetry honoring those who have fallen in service to their country, and the Sebastopol Community Band played Amazing Grace and Just a Closer Walk with Thee, as well as the Star Spangled Banner. Toward the end of the ceremony, VFW members and others called out the names of people they knew who had died in war.

Then the VFW invited everyone back to the Veterans Hall (AKA Sebastopol Center for the Arts) for sandwiches.

Michael Fassio reads the poem, “One Thousand Men are Walking.” (See the poem at the end of this article)

Elsewhere in Sebastopol today, the Sebastopol Fire Department hung a giant American flag from a fire truck ladder. It waved over Bodega Avenue, amazing passersby and reminding them what day it was.

And as always the local Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops lined Main Street with flags from Sebastopol Hardware at the north end of town to the West County Museum just south of downtown.

This poem was written by a 14 year old, Joshua Dyer, in 2019.