LONGPORT – Students of the Margate schools were disappointed when the Wounded Warrior Week parade was cancelled last week due to the rain. They had worked hard for days making patriotic posters to thank U.S. Army Green Beret Sgt. 1st Class Chase Tanton and his family for their service to the nation.
The Tantons arrived in the Downbeach area last Tuesday evening for a complimentary weeklong all-expenses-paid vacation at the Jersey Shore.
The American Legion Post 269 of Longport has been arranging Wounded Warrior Week celebrations for more than a decade to provide a worthy service man or woman with a hometown welcome they may not have had due to their war injuries.
“This is the 14th year we have participated in Wounded Warrior Week,” Eugene A. Tighe School fifth and sixth grade social studies teacher Jen Carey said Tuesday morning. “We usually gather at the Margate Public Library to welcome the wounded warrior to town. When the parade was cancelled last week, the students were disappointed. So, we asked the students’ parents to save the posters they made to use them at an event during the week.”
When she contacted Post Commander Larry Pacentrilli about erecting the posters at one of the Legion’s sponsored events, he told her he could do better.
“Let’s do a farewell parade,” Pacentrilli said.
He invited the students to bring their posters to the Church of the Redeemer for an impromptu parade as the Tantons left Longport for their trip back home.
Although there was no school on Tuesday because of Rosh Hashana – the Jewish New Year that serves as a day of prayer asking God to grant a year of peace, prosperity and blessings – most of the middle schoolers showed up bright and early to bid the Tantons a fond farewell.
“Since the parade was cancelled, I still wanted to honor the soldier and his family in some way,” sixth grader Safia Zakirova said. “So, I am very happy to be here to say goodbye to him and his family on this lovely morning.”
The students gathered out of sight on the Atlantic Avenue side of the Episcopal church that shines a blue light in its steeple every evening as a beacon for seafarers. Meanwhile, the family, unaware they were there, was a half-block away packing their belongings into the trunk of a stretch limousine for their ride to the Philadelphia airport where a plane was waiting to whisk them back to Provo, Utah.
“This is your parade,” Pacentrilli told Tanton as he was leaving the church rectory where the family was housed for their weeklong vacation at the Jersey shore.
Tanton rolled down his window and waved to the children as they cheered the family on their way home.
Copyright Fideri News Network 2025
