City to celebrate Veterans Day with parade
The 9th annual Veterans Day Celebration and Parade will be held at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 11, in downtown Cape Coral.
Public Relations Manager Helen Ramey said the Community Redevelopment Agency is the proud sponsor of the Veterans Day Parade as the community honors all veterans — those who have lost their lives, those who have served and those who are now proudly serving our country.
The parade route will start on Southeast 9th Place and go to Southeast 15th Avenue. The grand marshall this year is Pete Nicholsen, who served in the United States Marine Corps from 1966-70 in aviation operations. He served in Vietnam from September 1967 to November 1968 with the First Marine Air Wing.
The staging for the parade begins at 2 p.m. and will include approximately 50 units, two marching bands and a number of Lee County ROTC kids.
Vice President of Sons of Italy Group Linda Biondi said they hold the annual Veterans Day Parade because of what veterans do for us, what they have done and what they have sacrificed.
“To celebrate them is a fabulous thing … to appreciate how much they have done and continue to do,” she said. “It’s going to be a good parade.”
The annual Veterans Day Midpoint Madness 5K run will also be held on Nov. 11, at 7 p.m., with the proceeds benefiting the Lee County YMCA, The United Way and PFC Corey Kent.
The course will begin at the Midpoint Bridge at Colonial Boulevard and McGregor Boulevard. The course will begin on Colonial at the top of the McGregor fly-over and end near the entrance of Royal Palm Square Shopping Center on Colonial.
A commemorative T-shirt will be given to all registered participants and a variety of food and drinks will be available on Veterans Day.
The event will be timed with the new ChronoTrack Timing system, which is a disposable D-tag timing strip for participants shoes. The system will be given to participants when they pick up their race number.
A free car wash will also be provided to honor all veterans on Thursday at The Downtowner Car Wash. Veterans will only have to verbally tell the car wash attendants that they are a veteran to receive the full service car wash.
The Downtowner Car Wash is located at 1009 Del Prado Blvd., S. For information call (239) 772-CARS or visit www.downtownercarwash.com.
All Chili’s Restaurants will provide a free meal for veterans and active duty military who show proof of military service all day on Thursday. The free meals include an oldtimer with cheese, quesadilla explosion salad, margarita grilled chicken, cajun chicken pasta, chicken crispers and chicken club tacos.
Applebee’s will also provide a free meal to veterans and active duty military on Veterans Day. The free meals include a 7 oz. house sirloin, bacon cheeseburger, three cheese chicken penne, chicken tenders platter, oriental chicken salad, fiesta lime chicken and double crunch shrimp.