Colorado Springs welcomed the annual Veterans Day Parade back to downtown Saturday after the event was canceled due to the spread of COVID-19 last year. It marked the first time Colorado Springs did not have the event since its inception in 2000.
The parade didn’t miss a beat Saturday with attendance nearing pre-COVID numbers with roughly 40,000 people, despite the parade featuring around 30 fewer entries in the parade totaling about 1,000 fewer people, Colorado Springs Veterans Day Parade Board President Roger Ehrke said. There were around 70 entries in the parade this year.
Jay Bowen, a 20-year army veteran and department state commander of the Neal Thomas Jr.-Centennial Post 209 of the American Legion, was simply excited to celebrate veterans with the Colorado Springs community again.
“[The Energy] was so high. In fact I heard many, many comments [saying], ‘Thank God we’re back doing this again’,” he said. “We all were kind of in a funk last year not being able to get out and do anything because of COVID, so everybody is so excited and hyped about the opportunity to just get back out into the streets and be among the citizens again.”
The theme for this year was the greatest generation, honoring World War II veterans. It was supposed to be last year’s theme but the board kept it, wanting to celebrate World War II veterans in the region for what could be a final time. Ehrke said about 6 to 10 people over 100 years old were either in the parade or in the honorary guest bleachers located on Tejon Street at Pikes Peak Avenue.
The parade route runs down Tejon beginning at St. Vrain Street down to Vermijo Avenue.
The parade featured entries from military and military adjacent organizations in the Pikes Peak Region as well as school marching bands and their junior ROTC programs including Daughters of the American Revolution, Fort Carson Mounted Color Guard, U.S Air Force Academy Cadet Honor Guard, USAA, Veterans of Foreign Wars and more.
Bringing the parade back was challenging this year, administrative assistant Eileen Howe said. The board lost its secretary who oversaw duties like getting insurance and sponsorships, and many of the other responsibilities that keep the parade running. Howe, who moved from Colorado Springs to Charlotte, N.C. in 2015, picked up the slack and helped remotely. Howe said that she and members of the board took on additional responsibilities to make the parade happen this year.
The daughter of a veteran who was in the Minnesota National Guard and the mother of an Air Force Academy graduate, Howe said putting the parade together is a labor of love.
“I love the parade, I love working for those men and women,” she said. “It’s what we need to do for our military. We need to celebrate them.”
Howe thanked the community for doing its part to bring the parade back downtown. From Flex Tec which provided stickers which were miniaturized versions of the parade poster to Colorado Springs Utilities who send 20 people each year to help the board staff organize the parade lineup.
Bowen echoed that sentiment.
“We love doing this because it shows that not only does the city support [veterans] but we support the city,” he said.
That love and support could be felt by Brianna Bebb, who was in the parade as a member of the Vista Ridge High School Air Force Junior ROTC. Bebb, fighting back tears, expressed what she enjoyed about this year’s parade and what Veterans Day means to her.
“It brought everybody together. Everybody came together to support and celebrate the people who have served in the past,” she said. “My grandpa was in Air Force 22 years. It means a lot to my family.”
This content was originally published here.