Laying Down the Logistics of a Centennial Celebration

How should the lapel pin look?

Bruce Meyer, deputy inspector of the Long Beach Police Department, revealed the original design of the pin to John Radin Sr., who expressed concern that the LBPD seal on it may diminish the Stars and Stripes that serve as its background. 

“The American flag is supposed to be equal to or larger,” said Radin, a World War II veteran and past president of the Long Beach American Legion.

The pin will decorate past and present members of the LBPD when they celebrate the department’s centennial anniversary at the city’s Memorial Day parade. The pin’s design was just one of several issues that Meyer, Radin and other police officers, veterans and city employees discussed at a meeting at City Hall last week in preparation for the parade.

Meyer is spearheading the effort to organize the centennial. He sees merging the police with the veterans at the parade as seamless, since both essentially put their lives on the line to protect fellow citizens. But he’s quick to note that Memorial Day honors veterans, and having the police march behind them is one of many details he needs to iron out.

“This is a veterans memorial parade and you’re inviting us to be part of it,” Meyer told Radin.

Radin agreed to assist Omar Karom, who as commander of AMVETS and Joint Veterans Organization is in charge of organizing and conducting the parade. The veterans and Meyer talked logistics with John Zazzaro and Thomas Park, two retired members of the LBPD.

From lapel pins, their discussion splintered off into everything from finding and inviting retired LBPD members, to politics within the department about the event, to how to provide transportation for the elder retirees who are unable to march the parade route from the West End to police headquarters at the center of town.

“We’re really trying to make it a day for the retired members,” said Meyer, who estimated that there could be as many as 90 former LBPD members to invite, many of whom live outside New York. “Getting in contact with these people isn’t easy,” he said.  

Said Zazzaro: “If we get 20 to 30 to attend, that would be more realistic.”

Meyer tells him that he spoke to a Suffolk County police officer that organized a similar anniversary. He told him many more people attended than was expected.

Karom, a World War II veteran, was hired as a police officer in the 1950s and he recalled that he initially earned $3,000 yearly. He and the other veterans involved in the parade thought to ask LBPD Commissioner Thomas Sofield Sr., a Vietnam veteran, to be the parade’s keynote speaker.

Throughout the March 29 meeting, Meyer repeated that they must get a final headcount on the LBPD participants, by early May if possible. He said he needs to know exactly how many centennial commemorative items to order, including the lapel pins, license plates and medallions.

He must also consider ordering a 100th anniversary bronze plaque, as well as contact an automobile club that deals exclusively in vintage police cars. “I’m trying to get as many as these old police cars to come down,” Meyer said.

Part of the logistics includes getting as many of the elder members of the department into those cars. “A lot of these guys won’t be able to march from Ohio Avenue to headquarters,” Park noted.

The organizers also try to estimate the duration of the parade. This way, when the last marchers arrive at headquarters, officials can know when to transition to the post-parade speeches and to the LBPD activities — including an awards ceremony for active members — in order to keep as many parade-goers around as possible.

“You don’t want to lose the crowd, you want to bring them in,” said Mary Giambalvo, the city’s public information officer.

Last year, Meyer had the task of creating the City of Long Beach’s 2011 calendar that is devoted to the 100-year-old police department. In part, he had to track down many photos from yesteryear. After the meeting, he said that while that was a difficult assignment, organizing the parade is proving to be much more demanding.  

“The amount of time and effort that goes into this is incredible,” he said. “It’s a lot of work.”