This past Sunday, May 29th, and Monday, May 30th, Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-South Queens) marched in three parades and attended memorial services to honor fallen soldiers of South Queens and throughout the United States. On Sunday, she marched in the Broad Channel Parade, which started with a wreath-laying ceremony at the 17th Road Park Flag Pole and then traveled along Cross Bay Boulevard to the George Riekers Veterans Memorial Park. On Monday, she joined the Hamilton Beach Memorial Day Parade at Coleman Square, then marched in the Rockaway Memorial Day Parade, which started on Rockaway Beach Boulevard and finished at Beach 95th / Beach 96th Memorial Plaza.

“In this community, we all know veterans and we’ve either lost someone close, or we know someone who’s lost someone,” said Pheffer Amato. “This is a community of service. As my neighbors know too well, be it on 9/11, in World War II or in Iraq or Afghanistan, sometimes service means paying the ultimate price.

“We’re a richer community for the culture of selflessly putting ourselves out there,” Pheffer Amato continued, “but one of the most important responsibilities in a position like mine is to take today to really honor and remember those who died. We remember them as heroes and as people, as family members and as friends. Everything we have today, from our freedom to our prosperity, we thank them for. It was an honor to stand with so many of my neighbors from all across the district to start our summer the right way, by remembering and appreciating those who made it all possible.”