Dartmouth community comes together to celebrate Veterans Day

Coming together on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, Dartmouth community members celebrated Veterans Day at the seventh annual Veterans Day Ceremony held at Memorial Grove.

The Dartmouth Community Band performed the Star-Spangled Banner to begin the ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 11, with veterans, boy scouts, police officers, firefighters and other community members attending the event.

“Whether it’s the scouts or our brave police and fire departments, our band or other veterans in the VFW, thank you for showing up today. It means a lot,” said Dartmouth Veterans Advisory Board Chair Robert Mahowald.

Dartmouth Veteran Service Officer Matthew Brouillette first organized the event seven years ago as a way to bring people together and show appreciation for veterans. He explained that before he began the event there were very few Veterans Day events in the community.

“It’s important to remember their sacrifice [and] to remember what they did,” he said.

He noted that for veterans their service “continues beyond enlistment and discharge,” stating that it “lives in the daily actions and strengthens our communities and uplifts those around us.”

Speaking at the ceremony, Mahowald stated, “Let this Veterans Day be a reminder of what we can do and what duty and gratitude require of us.”

Quoting President John F Kennedy’s quote “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country,” he said, “America’s greatness, I believe, starts with ordinary people just like us showing up in towns just like Dartmouth.”

Select Board member Stanley Mickelson also spoke at the ceremony, calling Veterans Day a “very special day … to honor all those who gave their lives up so we can be here today to celebrate.”

Brouillette said the ceremony and others like it are important to have so that both veterans and their families “feel remembered for the sacrifice that they made.”

He emphasized the importance of not just recognizing Dartmouth’s veterans but also veterans across the nation.

“Without them, we wouldn’t have the freedoms that we have today,” he said. “Freedom isn’t free, and I think a lot of people take it for granted.”