Nov. 11, 2002 – To booming cadences issuing from two marching bands and one drum corps, hundreds of St. Thomas and St. John young people marched along Veterans Drive Monday afternoon honoring their forebears in a Veterans Day celebration.
The parade started promptly at 1 p.m. from Addelita Cancryn Junior High School and wound up at Emancipation Garden for formal ceremonies.
In his keynote address, Gen. Alfred O. Heath (retired) noted the irony of celebrating veterans' contributions in past wars while another against Iraq is brewing. Gov. Charles W. Turnbull made brief remarks, as did Delegate Donna Christiansen. Lesmore Howard, American Legion Post No. 90 historian, was master of ceremonies.
Another scheduled speaker, Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel, who chairs the Legislature's Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee, did not appear.
From about noon, the youngsters — from little Brownies to the almost-adult high school Reserve Officer Training Corps troops — readied themselves at Cancryn. They adjusted their uniforms, tuned saxophones, tried out new steps and twirled batons. All except the 249 members of the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School ROTC unit and the 230 members of its Charlotte Amalie High School counterpart, who stood at attention, looking straight ahead.
The Brownies, giggling and dancing in line, showed no such discipline, and they didn't really have to. They were clearly more interested in the parade than in the significance of the day. Under the guidance of Gail Steele, Girl Scout leader and public relations director, they were doing just fine. "They're anxious to get to the parade," Steele said. She lamented the fact that parents don't participate in encouraging the youngsters to parade. "They say it's too hot," she said.
Also readying themselves for the parade were the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Pathfinders drum corps, the Civil Air Patrol youth group wearing blue and black berets, Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, and the CAHS band. The other band, the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Program marching band, comprises students from Cancryn, Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School and Julius E. Sprauve School on St. John.
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