The 2026 Tamaqua Memorial Day Parade will be held beginning at 10 a.m. May 25.

Stephen Heigele, of Tamaqua, will be grand marshal of the parade, while Dr. Evelyn Potochny will be the featured speaker for the Memorial Day service. Held at the Soldiers’ Circle in Odd Fellow’s Cemetery, the service will start at 11 a.m. with the color guard of the Tamaqua American Legion C.H. Berry Post No. 173 rendering honors.

Parade formation will be in the last block of East Broad Street in the area of NAPA Auto Parts. Participants are asked to be on-site no later than 9:30 a.m., and upon arrival should check in with one of the parade coordinators to find their designated location in the lineup.

The 159th Tamaqua Memorial Day Service of Remembrance honors our country’s war dead, with printed recognition of those 94 Tamaqua natives who gave their lives while on active military duty. The brief service also includes the reading of the names of the Tamaqua area veterans who passed away since last year’s Memorial Day observance.

Participants will include master of ceremonies Matthew Zizelmann, Pastor Laura Kenlin Meiser, Heigele, Poppy Queen Brinley Boyle, the Tamaqua American Legion C.H. Berry Post No. 173, the Canton Allentown No. 39 Patriarch’s Militant, members of the Tamaqua Area High School Raider Marching Band and Potochny.

Dr. Evelyn Potochny

Potochny is a 1994 graduate of Marian Catholic High School, having transferred from Tamaqua during her junior year. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology from Penn State University in 1998 and a doctor of osteopathy from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2006.

She graduated from Officer Indoctrination School and served in the U.S. Navy from 2006 to 2019, including deployments as a medical officer for the Medical Civic Action program in Bangladesh in 2008 and as battalion surgeon for the Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, from 2008 to 2009. She was discharged with a rank of O-5 commander, the equivalent of lieutenant colonel.

Potochny completed her anatomic and clinical pathology residency at Naval Medical Center San Diego in 2014 and a blood banking/transfusion medicine fellowship at Penn State Hershey in 2015.

She is currently a pathologist at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and resides in Hummelstown.

Potochny is the daughter of Mary Potochny of Lake Hauto and the late Dr. John Potochny.

Meiser graduated from Tamaqua Area High School in 1991 and was ordained on July 21, 2024, by the Atlantic Northeast District of the Church of the Brethren. After spending several years teaching classroom general and instrumental music in a private school setting and completing 30 years leading music and children’s ministries, she accepted the call to serve as associate pastor of discipleship at Hempfield Church of the Brethren near East Petersburg.

She is a graduate of Elizabethtown College and received a master of divinity degree from Evangelical Seminary, a legacy partner of Kairos University. She and her husband, Darren, have two grown daughter, Madison of Harrisburg and Rowan of Elizabethtown.

Poppy queen

Brinley Boyle, 4, is the daughter of Sarah Allesch and Nicholas Boyle of Tamaqua. She is a student at Valley Christian Preschool in Tamaqua and is a member of the Junior Auxiliary of the Tamaqua Legion. She is the granddaughter of Wendy and Joe Seigenfuss, George and Annette Boyle, and Frank and Lisa Allesch, all of Tamaqua.

Stephen Heigele

A native of Traverse City, Michigan, Heigele was raised in Tamaqua and graduated from Tamaqua Area High School in 1965. He completed a three-year printing program at Stevens Trade School in 1968 before being drafted into the United States Army that November.

Heigele received basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and advanced individual training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, as a military policeman. He was then stationed in Augsburg, Germany, with the 536th Military Police Company, completing 18½ months of active duty and attaining the rank of specialist 4 (E-4).

During the flood in July of 1972, he was activated as an adviser to the Pentagon with the military police detachment from Pottsville at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and was honorably discharged in 1974. His commendations include the Red Ball Express citation.

Following his military service, Heigele worked as a pressman’s assistant with St. Regis and later spent 25 years with Frito-Lay as a salesman, retiring in 1998. He concluded his working career as a transporter for the Rinaldi Brothers dealership.

A 53-year member of the Tamaqua American Legion C.H. Berry Post No. 173, he is the father of Heather Heigele of Alexandria, Virginia; Sarah Coggiano of Schuylkill Haven and her companion Stephen Hammond; and Rachael Laird of Tamaqua. He is also the grandfather of Leah Laird, a sophomore at Tamaqua Area High School.

The parade will be held rain or shine. In the event of rain, however, the Memorial Day Service will be held at the Tamaqua Community Arts Center, 125 Pine St. If the service is relocated to the arts center, the announcement will be made as early as possible on the Tamaqua Remembers Facebook page.

Any organizations interested in participating in the parade can do so by contacting Arthur Connely at 570-778-7710 or Dave Meredith at 570-952-1214.

Food and refreshments will be available at the Tamaqua American Legion, 206 W. Broad St., immediately following the Memorial Day Service.