Veterans Day celebration is Sunday; day marks 100th anniversary of end of WWI

On the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Veterans Day ceremonies start at 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 11, at the Homer Emblem Club Veterans Memorial at the corner of Lake Street and Pioneer Avenue.

The Anchor Point Veterans of Foreign Wars holds a brief ceremony there. A parade of veterans organizations then proceeds west on Pioneer Avenue to Main Street, south on Main Street, and east on the Sterling Highway. The parade ends at the American Legion Post 16 General Buckner memorial at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center. The Legion conducts a ceremony, with the playing of taps and a rifle salute by the VFW. A lunch for veterans follows at the Homer Elks Lodge, where several veterans also will be honored with the presentation of Quilts of Valor made by the Kachemak Bay Quilters.

Veterans Day is held on the anniversary of the armistice that ended hostilities in World War I in 1918, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It honors and celebrates veterans of all military services who have served in war and peacetime. In Canada and the United Kingdom the day is celebrated as Remembrance Day. People are encouraged to attend the ceremonies and watch the parade.