By John Brice
Correspondent
Community leaders and local residents gathered together for a Veterans Day parade and celebration in the vicinity of Hospital Street and B Street in LaFayette during the morning hours of Saturday, November 9th of 2024. In a promotional flier for the event which was titled “Land of the free because of the brave – Veterans Day Celebration – We honor your valor and service to our country.“, it was announced that the procession would begin in front of Vines Funeral Home. Forming the long line of vehicles participating in the parade included entries from the LaFayette Fire Department, LaFayette Police Department, JC Colley Trucking as well as marchers such as Lanett High School JROTC cadets, LHS Marching Band and Chambers Academy Cheerleaders.
LaFayette Fire Chief James Doody was joined by LPD Chief Christopher Trice and LaFayette Main Street Executive Director Deanna Hand in departing their vehicles to hand out American flags and pins to veterans waiting with great anticipation and joy on the sidewalk as well as in the parking lots of nearby senior centers. T
Taking a moment to speak with the LaFayette Sun, Chief Doody commented “This is remarkable. Everything we have been doing in the City of LaFayette is only going to get bigger and better and this is only just a small piece of giving back and thanking the veterans for their service to the country. This is the least we can do and I appreciate all the support that we have had throughout this event and looking forward to a bigger event next year. Thank you.”
Coming to their ultimate destination at the Chambers County Community Health and Wellness Center, attendees gathered in seating under pavilion tents to hear comments from a number of notable speakers. Chief Doody gave further remarks to the crowd noting “Good morning, everybody. I would just like to shout out to some individuals that were pretty instrumental in putting this together. I assure you, the mayor assures me that this will get bigger next year. So I appreciate every one of the veterans here that has come out. Ms. Debra Ward, our staff, Zach, Chief Trice. This is something that we felt was long overdue for our area. I appreciate the turnout, this is fantastic. I hope everybody came hungry. We got some food after this. I have the privilege to introduce a very special woman who does a lot for the veterans in our community. For those that don’t realize, there is over 2,500 veterans in Chambers County and she does a great job keeping the troops together. So, I want to introduce Ms. Yvonne Triplett. This amazing woman runs the Chambers County Veterans Service office and is also retired army.”
