Cumming Celebrates Veterans Day

The City of Cumming along with the are holding a ceremony to honor veterans across the county and country.

"We're there to celebrate all veterans and probably instill in the crowd the need to support veterans and honor them for their selfless service to the nation," said Richard Knight, Senior Vice Commander of VFW Post 9143. "For me it's always an honor to represent the veterans."

The pubic is invited to the Veterans War Memorial located in downtown Cumming on Friday at 11 a.m. where several hundred people are expected.

"We usually have a crowd of about 200," said Knight.

The morning ceremony will include musical entertainment by the Flash Crimson Band from . Also scheduled to be there will be the Forsyth Christian Educators and Boy Scout Troop 245. The Forysth County Fire Department Honor Guard will be posting the colors and performing Taps.

Knight, who is also serving as Friday's Master of Ceremonies, said Mayor H. Ford Gravitt will open the ceremony and Lt. Col. Pete Rodda (U.S. Army, Retired) is the keynote speaker.

Knight said the ceremony is a way of getting everyone together to say thank you to the veterans.

"We just like to remind everyone that these folks went through a lot to be veterans and many have sacrificed a lot to do their job," he said.

In addition to the ceremony, a pancake breakfast will be held at VFW Post 9143 located at 1045 Dahlonega Highway in Cumming from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. The cost is $5.