Help Honor Veterans At Annual Veterans Day Parade In Toms River

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Veterans will be honored for their service in the U.S. Armed Forces at the annual Ocean County Veterans Day Parade in Toms River on Monday.

The parade is set to step off from behind the Toms River Shopping Center on Highland Parkway at 9:45 a.m. and will travel down Main Street to Washington Street, ending at Toms River's Town Hall, 33 Washington St.

A ceremony follows on the steps at town hall. In addition to speakers, the Toms River Veterans Commission is slated to honor the intermediate and high school students who won its annual Veterans Day essay contest.

The ceremony also includes a rifle salute and the placing of a wreath on the veterans monument.

The grand marshals for the 2024 parade are U.S. Army veterans Arnie Boyle and Bob Tweer, and U.S. Navy veteran Lou Vella.

Toms River South student Samantha Parker is scheduled to be the bugler playing the national anthem and Taps at the ceremony.

Veterans Day first was held on Nov. 11, 1919, on the first anniversary of the end of World War I, which was known as Armistice Day. On Nov. 11, 1918, Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies agreeing to end World War I, according to History.com.

Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and Nov. 11 became a national holiday beginning in 1938. The name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day in 1954, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, according to History.com.

The Veterans Essay Contest winners are:

Intermediate School Level (Grades 6-8)

1st Place: Elena Schuler Grade 6, St. Joseph Grade School
2nd Place: Christian Leone, Grade 7, St. Joseph Grade School
3rd Place: Lauren Bush, Grade 7, Toms River Intermediate North

High School Level (Grades 9-12)

1st Place: Nicholas Malland, Grade 11, Toms River High School East
2nd Place: Jaiden Freestone, Grade 10, Toms River High School South
3rd Place: Joaquin Miranda, Grade 10, Toms River High School South