Changes are coming to this year's Memorial Day program in Lehighton.

Members of the Lehighton United Veterans Organization said while it will still be organizing services for the upcoming holiday, it won't be doing as many.For example, the Sunday service at Franklin Heights Cemetery will take place in even-numbered years such as 2016, while a service at St. Matthew's Church Cemetery will take place in odd-numbered years.To the west, Ben Salem Church Cemetery will host a service in even-numbered years and Dinkey Memorial Church Cemetery in odd-numbered years.Every cemetery will still get military honors."There are a number of factors that play into it," said Kevin Long, of the Lehighton UVO."A lot of our longtime members are either deceased or just can't do it anymore. Through the last few years, we've been able to pick up a few Vietnam-era veterans, but it's a struggle to get participation from our younger veterans. I know it's a sign of the times, but it's getting to the point where it's challenging to continue to do the amount of services we had been doing."The main Memorial Day service on Monday will be at a different venue. Normally held at the Lehighton Cemetery, it will now take place at the Lehighton Park Amphitheater."We can set things up in the band shell, there is adequate seating and more shade trees," Long said. "The cemetery is wide open and, again, we have an aging membership so it's hard for them to be in the sun like that."Following the main service, there will be an honors detail at Lehighton Cemetery.Planning for the Memorial Day services starts in January."We went down to the high school and got five students who volunteered to be speakers," Long said. "They've always been really fine, upstanding young people when we went down and asked them for help."The students participating this year are Nola Barilla, Lexi Kenny, Cassie Reigel, Tate Koch and Devin Williams.It isn't just the participation in Memorial Day events that troubles organizers, it's also the attendance.UVO Vice Commander David Bryfogle said he can remember as a kid in the 1950s when people used to line the streets when the parade would come through town."Traffic would be all backed up and you had the band plus 50 veterans with them," Bryfogle said. "The band had to play about two or three songs just until the children got done putting flowers on the graves."A surge of patriotism after 9/11 gave older veterans hope, but the enthusiasm has since waned.Long said the length of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan cause people to put what is happening on the back burner and go on with their lives.