Three events will highlight Veterans Day on Monday, November 11. The day starts with an 8:00 a.m. veterans’breakfast and ceremony at Northwestern Regional School # 7, where Norfolk students attend middle and high school. Veterans planning to attend should reply to 860-379-8525, ext. 2100
The Regional 7 event will be followed at 10:30 by a program at Botelle Elementary School commemorating the sacrifices made by veterans in all wars. The children sent veterans and their families hand-written invitations to the assembly. After the program, the PTO will provide luncheon for the veterans, their families and some students.
Then, at 4:00 p.m., townspeople are invited to gather at the intersection of routes 44 and 272 for a relighting of the 1921 war memorial, which honors the valor of the town’s World War I veterans. The lighting ceremony culminates a three-year restoration of the monument initiated by the Norfolk Community Association.
It had been hoped that the monument would be rededicated on its 100th anniversary, November 11, 2021, but work was delayed by Covid and its after effects.
NCA member Barry Webber said the monument is being professionally lit by the same company that designed lighting for the library and town hall. “There were lights on it before, but they were pretty basic and didn’t accent the structure,” he said.
The new lights will conform to current standards and will not contribute to light pollution, he said. The eight evergreens on Memorial Green, which commemorate the eight Norfolk natives who died in the First World War, will be lighted at the same time.
Webber could not give an exact cost of restoring the memorial, saying it is included with the work done on the Eldridge fountain on the village green.