The Philadelphia Protestant Home on Monday hosted its annual Memorial Day observance, with residents encouraged to watch in their rooms on Facebook Live due to the coronavirus.
The ceremony was taped to be shown on PPH’s in-house television this week.
PPH’s president and CEO, Anthony Manzo, was among those in attendance.
Bill Conaway, PPH’s director of community relations, said heroes work at and live in the facility, 6401 Martins Mill Road.
Conaway thanked Boys Scouts Troop 160 for writing letters to residents during the pandemic and PPH executive assistant Kathy Wersinger, who read a poem, for her involvement in numerous veterans programs.
Several PPH residents took part in the ceremony. Pastor Ken Smith offered an invocation and dedication. Audrey Alston sang the words to Taps and led the crowd in the national anthem. Mildred Sours placed a wreath. And 101-year-old Phil Grutzmacher was taped reciting the war poem In Flanders Fields, by memory.
PPH security guard Jorge Rodriguez raised an American flag.
Conaway explained the significance of the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action table, a place of honor set for one.
State Rep. Jared Solomon recalled President Woodrow Wilson’s 1914 Memorial Day address, when he described fallen American military members as “noble.” Solomon said the word “noble” can be extended to frontline workers, including those who work at the Protestant Home. ••
