- November 17, 2024
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The Rotary Club of Flagler County held a Veterans Day celebration at its meeting Tuesday, Nov. 11, in the Grand Club dining area. Over 100 people filled the dining room, with over 60% being veterans who represented all the different military branches.
To assist with the celebration, the Sheriff’s Office’s color guard attended and presented the colors to kick off the lunch. With just two weeks of rehearsal time, the Flagler Youth Orchestra performed all the branches’ music during the event.
“We’ve never had reason to learn that music, so this was a great exercise for us to locate music and then prepare it,” said Cheryl Tristam, Flagler Youth Orchestra’’s executive director.
As a way to celebrate the Marines’ 239th birthday, the club held the cake cutting tradition, where the oldest and youngest veteran in attendance cut the first piece. The oldest was Tony Basile, 93, who served from 1941 to 1945, and the youngest was a certain member of the Palm Coast Observer staff, who served from 2007 to 2010.
The special guest in attendance was Sean Keane, active duty special forces command sergeant major. Keane spoke about some of his responsibilities and took questions.
The Rotary Club president and Marine Corps veteran John Skripko hosted the event.
“I was very impressed with the turnout,” Skripko said. “We had more members invite veterans than members came, so we could free up space for the veterans. As a U.S. Marine, and as the president of this club, I wanted to say thank you to the veterans and active duty soldiers for what they’ve done and what they continue to do.”
