Museum salutes city’s veterans, active military
-
- Brooks Lentini and his grandmother Margaret Lentini at Saturday’s military tribute. CRAIG GARRETT
-
- The Cape Coral Museum of History’s artifact collection is wide-ranging and instructive. CRAIG GARRETT
-
- The Calendar Girls were among those performing at the museum program Saturday. CRAIG GARRETT
-
- Guns n Hoses Pipes n Drums of SWFL performed at the Salute to Service and Sacrifice Saturday. CRAIG GARRETT
-
- From left, Charlie Pease, Mariner High School JROTC cadets Blake Manning and Victor Carrillo and Linda Biondi prepare for Saturday’s event. CRAIG GARRETT
A Salute to Service and Sacrifice on Saturday was the first such tribute organized by the Cape Coral Museum of History.
The event was an advance of Veterans Day, which honors American servicemen and women. Armistice Day was acknowledged in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson, then became a U.S. holiday in 1938.
Saturday’s tribute was co-hosted by the title sponsor, Incredible Bank.
The event at the museum’s campus on Cultural Park Boulevard mustered veteran groups, vendors, entertainment and tributes from such dignitaries as Mayor John Gunter, Florida Rep. Mike Giallombardo and Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman.
Entertainers on the docket included Guns n Hoses Pipes n Drums of SWFL, the Calendar Girls dance troupe, Cape police and fire honor guards, a Mariner High School JROTC rifle demonstration unit, music and DJ Robert Gonnelli.
Sponsors, vendors, information booths and tours of the museum’s collections were available, as well as police motorcycles, military trucks and Jeeps, firefighters and giveaways. Veterans in uniform, their families and visitors rounded out the first day of November.
An American flag hanging from a ladder truck wafted over the museum grounds as Christian Life Academy middle-schooler Isabella Clark, unaccompanied, sang the National Anthem.
Jeanne Schwerd, wife of Eagles tribute singer Joe Kelly, was “looking forward to the day. We just hope for a good crowd.”
Giallombardo, an Army veteran, noted the city is veteran friendly.
And, he said, “we can’t take that for granted.”
Gunter applauded the event organizers.
“Any opportunity,” he said of veterans and active servicemembers, “we should remember them, in my opinion, each and every day.”
Charlie Pease, serving with the museum’s board of directors, was master of ceremonies. He urged visitors to view Cape Coral’s quirky backstory from its artifact collection.
Saturday’s planning, Pease said, included “incorporating the history of the Cape Coral Museum (of History),” he said.
“We are an all-volunteer board with a limited budget, so this, I think, is amazing,” he added, with a sweep of his hand on park grounds
A Purple Heart city with thousands of veterans, the tribute at Cultural Park seemed fitting, Linda Biondi, museum board vice president and chair of A Salute to Service and Sacrifice, had said in advance.
“It’s a perfect day,” she said Saturday.
The museum’s executive director Janel Trull added: “It’s definitely a wonderful thing to honor those who served their country.”
Gloria Raso Tate, as a child was among Cape Coral’s original settlers, watched as Saturday morning unfolded with a warming sun. She recalled that Joe Raso, her father, had purchased 65 years ago upon hearing a promotional ad in New Jersey, one lot for each of his four kids.
“And none of us wanted them,” she said of her father’s decision, laughing and adding that “it’s a privilege (to work) on an event that honors veterans.”