Two Veterans’ Memorials Will Be Dedicated This Veteran’s Day Weekend

Two significant memorial events are planned for this Veteran’s Day weekend in Groton. On Saturday, a memorial to the memory of Sgt. William Woitowicz, a Groton Marine who was killed in action in Afganistan will be dedicated. And on Sunday a Gold Star Memorial will be dedicated at Sawyer Common as part of the town’s ceremony honoring all veterans.

Residents are invited to join the Groton Park Commissioners and Eagle Scout candidate Ryan Hamerla on November 10, 2012 at 10 a.m., when they dedicate a memorial plaque and flagpole to the memory to Sgt. William Woitowicz. The ceremony will be held at Stonebridge Field at the corner of Stonebridge Way and Forge Village Rd. Hamerla and a volunteer work crew have already installed a base for the plaque, a base for the flagpole, and completed mulching, gravel, bush, and bulb planting.

In an email sent by Lyle Hamerla to Park Commission Chair Don Black, he wrote, “Scouts, family, friends and helpers from the neighborhood all pitched in to landscape around the memorial, as well as spruce up the bushes. The base for the flag pole is all set, located just behind the azaela bush on the left. The azaela bushes will have white flowers. Red, white, and blue tulips where arranged in front of the boulder, and daffodils planted along the bushes behind the boulder.”

Bob Johnson, Groton’s Veterans’ Services Officer, wrote, “The larger ceremony will be on Sunday 11 November at 12:00 noon at the Sawyer Common (intersection of Hollis Street and Martins Pond Road). One part of this ceremony will be the dedication of a Gold Star Memorial monument which will honor all Groton servicemembers who died in service since World War II.”

Groton’s John Giger will deliver the keynote address on behalf of Groton’s veterans, Black said.