‘A huge hole’: With Memorial Day festivities canceled, veterans’ groups try to uphold traditions

Charlie Yost beamed the past couple years while he watched hundreds of people line streets along a Memorial Day parade route in York County.

As a pastor at the Goldsboro Church of God in Goldsboro, Yost cherishes events that unite the community. As a former chaplain for the U.S. Army Reserves who lost several friends in combat during three overseas tours, he values any opportunity to honor soldiers who died protecting the country.

So for Yost, it stung when the Veterans of Foreign War Post 537 in Newberry Township announced a few weeks ago it would cancel Memorial Day festivities in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

“It leaves a huge hole,” said Yost, who serves as a chaplain for VFW Post 537. “We’re very active, we have a variety of speakers at the parades. We had a gold star mother one year. … It’s a great loss not to be able to do that.”

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