Veterans Day Parade at Secrest Auditorium

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- Veterans Day isn’t until next weekend, but Zanesville got a head start on celebrating.

The Veterans Day Parade kicked off this morning shutting down parts of Downtown. The parade started at Secrest Auditorium and moved through Downtown before ending back at Secrest. Laraine Butler from the Veterans Council said many residents, organizations, and Veteran’s came out to enjoy the parade.

“The parade is awesome. The parade is honoring all Veterans no matter what part of service you’ve been in, we’re honoring all of them today. We have a lot of Veterans from all of the different branches that are supporting. So many of our community is out today, to not only support the Veterans, but also to show off what things they’re doing in the community.”

Next week, the Veterans Council will host its annual Veterans Hall of Fame Program at the Zanesville-Muskingum County Welcome Center. Today, two of the Veterans that will be honored at the program rode in the parade. Orville Adams, a Specialist in the Army, said while the parade and thanks is great, more needs to be done.

“Just not parades. Just help them out generally in everything else they’re doing. If you know a Veteran is down, go give him a hand.”

The parade also honored those who served, but never made it back home, with a riderless horse. The Veterans that were in attendance rode on the back on tractor trailers waving and tossing candy to the crowd.