Thank A Veteran

Wellington and the American Legion Post 390 – Wellington will honor all veterans with a Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday, May 31st, 2021 at the Veterans Memorial, located on the corner of Forest Hill Boulevard and South Shore Boulevard. Veterans, their families and loved ones, and all members of the community are invited to attend.

The ceremony begins at 8:30 AM and will feature a Gold Star Memorial Dedication sponsored by the Wellington Garden Club. The Gold Star Memorial represents families of service members who have lost their lives during service. The Wellington Garden Club raised the funds to install the marker at the Veterans Memorial and will unveil the marker during the Memorial Day Ceremony.

If you are an active or retired veteran, you will have an opportunity to register at the Wellington tent, on the morning of the event, to be recognized during the ceremony. To become a part of this event, please contact Michelle Garvey, Assistant Community Services Director, at (561) 791-4082.

About Gold Star Memorial Markers

Gold Star Families is a non-profit organization created to provide support to those who have lost a loved one in service to our country through the United States Armed Forces. Their mission is to offer honor, hope and healing through remembering fallen heroes by coming together. The name Gold Star came from the custom of families of service members hanging a banner called a service flag in the window of their homes. The service flag had a star for each family member in the United States Armed Forces. Blue Stars represented living service members while a Gold Star represented those who had lost their lives. NGC clubs work with Gold Star Families to honor our fallen heroes with Gold Star Markers.

Wellington has always partnered with the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration to thank and honor our Vietnam Veterans.  This includes personnel who were held as prisoners of war or who were listed as missing in action for their service and sacrifice on behalf of the United States and to thank and honor the families of those veterans on this 50th year of remembrance.  Wellington received a proclamation and has been deemed a commemorative partner for this division of the Department of Defense.

Memorial Day History

Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May.  It was established so that American Citizens can honor men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. The Civil War  (1861 to 1865)  was the deadliest conflict in United States history. The war had a huge impact on American society and as such, required the United States to establish our first national cemeteries.  An American holiday, Memorial Day, originally was known as Decoration Day and originated in the years that followed the Civil War.  According to historians on May 5, 1962, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, stated “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

By the later 1860’s American citizens had begun to hold spring tributes to the countless fallen soldiers by saying prayers and decorating gravesites with flowers.

Decoration Day gradually evolved and came to be known as Memorial Day.   Initially it honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War.   During World War I the United States once again found itself embroiled in deadly conflict.  It is during this time that the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars.

In 1968 Congress passed the  Uniform Monday Holiday Act which designated the last Monday in May as Memorial Day.  This was done so as to create a three-day weekend for federal employees; the change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.