City of Portage honors fallen heroes with Memorial Day Service

Hundreds of Northwest Indiana residents sat in the Founders Park grass for the City of Portage’s annual Memorial Day service on Monday, May 25.

The service featured distinguished speakers and government, including Portage Mayor Austin Bonta, Congressman Frank Mrvan, and State Representative Chuck Moseley. American Legion’s Post 260 Auxiliary also played a major role in this Memorial Day service, with Service Officer Bruce Thorn taking part in the Role Call and Chaplain Julie Grazyda delivering a powerful closing prayer. City volunteers also handed out free hot dogs and water bottles to attendees.

Jimmy Edwards, the Second District Commander of The Sons of the American Legion, spoke about the Legion’s hefty role in Portage’s service.

“We put this together with the city right when COVID-19 started. It’s always been a joint venture. We need the support of the city for this, since their facility and their parks department helps out with it. I’d say it’s definitely pretty close to 50-50 in terms of planning and execution for this event,” Edwards said.

American Legion’s Post 260 plays a supportive role in the Portage community beyond their Memorial Day service. They’ve given several thousand dollars in scholarships to local students, supported the high school’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) program, and have donated to numerous community ordinances.

“We give money to our police and firefighter departments, to the food pantry, to the Porter Portage Township trustee. We try to get back to our communities as much as possible,” Edwards said.

The City of Portage’s Memorial Day event is a community gathering in the purest sense. All different walks of life, from seniors to students, sat attentively under the hot midwestern sun. Portage High School’s choir sang both to open and close the ceremony. The school’s JROTC fired a three-rifle volley, the shots punctuating the importance of the event.

Mayor Bonta believed the City of Portage’s Memorial Day Service to be emblematic of the community as a whole.

“I think that is Portage, and we’re very blessed that that’s our community,” Bonta said. “Portage is and has been a community of all ages, all races, all creeds, and it is a community where we very much value service to the country and the city. We treat those who serve in the military with a great deal of respect and a great deal of gratitude. That’s a reflection of our city; we are such a diverse place in almost every demographic.”

Congressman Mrvan highlighted the importance of Memorial Day as being dual-pronged; it’s important to value and remember those who have fallen protecting our country, rights, and freedoms, but it is just as important to remind surviving veterans of the support and programs available to them.

“What I want to make sure that we do as a nation is that those veterans who serve have the resources necessary to come back for healthcare or for mental health. We want to make sure we combat suicide with prevention. It’s vitally important that we provide those resources, but also to never forget the gold star families, the people who have sacrificed for our freedoms, and make ourselves worthy of those sacrifices as a nation that is united and moving with our best foot forward,” Mrvan said.

More information on the City of Portage can be found at portagein.gov.