Putnam To Honor Military Thursday Morning

Putnam County residents can honor the US Military during a special July 4th ceremony at the Putnam County Courthouse Thursday morning.

Mayor Randy Porter said the ceremony will honor the Veteran’s Honor Guard and the local National Guard Unit. He said he is excited about the timing of the event, as the National Guard Unit is scheduled to deploy this fall.

“We love to always honor our military personnel and our veterans,” Porter said. “And this gives us the ability on this one to do both; to hit both groups, and both of them do great jobs for us so we always want to honor them every chance we get.”

Porter said the ceremony would start around 10:20 following the Patriot Parade.

“It’s all free,” Porter said. “We’d love to have you. Bring a chair for the ceremony. Bring your grandkids, kids. Come out.”

The ceremony also features the 10th annual Patriot Parade. He said kids will begin a few blocks from the square on North Washington Avenue and make their way to the Putnam County Courthouse. He said parents are welcome to join their kids or help them dress up their bicycle, tricycle, or wagon in red, white, and blue. He said it is a prime opportunity to teach kids the values of patriotism.

“It’s a great time to teach our young folks,” Porter said. “And if we don’t teach them, the new generations coming on, at some point, we’re going to lose a lot of this stuff. So we think it’s a big deal and we try to do it each year. This is our 10th annual year of doing it here at the courthouse.”

He said the event started out small but has grown with each installation.