This year’s annual Veterans Day Celebration, co-sponsored by the Association and the Warwick Neck Elementary School, featured the school’s 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students. Noah Smith and Marina Godbout from the 5th grade were the hosts for the Celebration, their responsibilities including reading the 136 names of veterans currently serving or having previously served. 5th grade students Tyler Mooney and Abigail McCluskey read poems they had written for the occasion, and the entire 3rd, 4th and 5th grades gave choral performances under the direction of Kristy Procaccianti.

Remarks were given by Frank Galligan, Principal of the school, Captain Clint Pringle, United States Coast Guard, and retired Army Lt. Colonel and Warwick Neck resident Gregg Langevin. The military invocation and benediction were offered by Rev. Robert Marciano, United States Military Chaplain.

Joining in the celebration were families and friends of veterans present and past, Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi, and representatives of the city’s police and fire departments.

In one respect, the Veterans Day Celebration this year was unique. For the first time in the many years that the Elementary School students have been part of the celebration, originally at the Warwick Neck Lighthouse and now at the school itself, the event was held indoors. The move to inside was prompted by cool fall weather.

The warmth of the building was more than matched by the shared sense of all those present of what we owe to the men and women of our nation’s armed forces.