The 2016 Tamaqua Memorial Day Parade will be held at 10 a.m. Monday. The parade will form in the last block of East Broad Street, in the area of the former CVS and Maff Motors. Participants are asked to be there no later than 9:45 a.m. and, upon arrival, check in with one of the parade coordinators to find their designated location in the lineup.

Earl Bridygham Jr. of Clamtown has been named grand marshal of the parade, while retired U.S. Army chaplain Col. Hank Steinhilber of Windsor will be the featured speaker for the Memorial Day service. The service, held at the Soldiers' Circle in Odd Fellows Cemetery, will take place at 11 a.m. The color guard of C.H. Berry Post 173, Tamaqua American Legion, will render honors.Tamaqua's 148th Annual Memorial Day Service honors all deceased veterans. The brief service includes the reading of the names of those Tamaqua area veterans who passed away since the previous Memorial Day. The service also includes patriotic selections by members of the high school band and a balloon release in memory of departed veterans. Participants will include the Rev. Rodney Hall, Grand Marshal Bridygham and Poppy Queen Caitlyn Kovatch, members of the Tamaqua American Legion C.H. Berry Post 173, members of the Tamaqua Area Raider Marching Band, Tamaqua Area High School Student Council, the Canton Allentown 39 Patriarch's Militant, and guest speaker Col. Steinhilber.Grand Marshal Bridygham is a resident of Clamtown. A native of Tuscarora, he is a World War II veteran, having served in the U.S. Army as private first class. From 1944 to 1945, he was assigned to the 13th Infantry Regiment of the Eighth Infantry "Golden Arrow" Division and was active in France and Germany during the final months of the war. He participated in the Battle for Brest (France), the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, and the liberation of the Wöbbelin Concentration Camp near Ludwigslust, Germany.After the war, Bridygham was employed by the Norman Schock Trucking and Mining Company of Tuscarora and retired from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission as a Lehigh Tunnel operator. His late wife, Rose (Assalita) Bridygham, passed away in 2014. He has been a member of the American Legion for 71 years.Chaplain Steinhilber is a native of Massachusetts. He was first called by the Lutheran church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he was ordained by the Lutheran Church in America. A U.S. Army chaplain from 1977 to 2007, he served in a variety of positions, including battalion chaplain, brigade chaplain and division chaplain.His 30-year Army career included tours at Army Posts in the Southeast United States, Germany, and a few assignments where the family could not follow. He served two tours at the U.S. Army Chaplain Center & School as an instructor/staff member, then as Director of Training for the Chaplain Corp. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle and finished his career as the Installation Chaplain at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.He is married to the former Barbara (Clemson) Kelton. The couple now live in Windsor and are the parents of three adult children, Matthew, Jodi and Lisa. He currently serves as chaplain for the SpiriTrust Lutheran Retirement village in York.This year's Poppy Queen is Caitlyn Kovatch, daughter of Joseph Jr. and Angela (Perla) Kovatch of Nesquehoning. She is the granddaughter of Eugene and Margaret Perla of Tamaqua, and Joseph Kovatch of Nesquehoning and the late Florence Kovatch. A third-grader at Our Lady of the Angels Academy in Lansford, she is a member of the Junior Auxiliary of the American Legion C.H. Berry Post 173 and a member of Girl Scout Troop 34100. Caitlyn is active at Tumble with Denise Gymnastics in Lehighton, where she is a Level 4 gymnast and is currently practicing to compete at Level 5 for the fall gymnastics season.The Rev. Rodney Hall has served as the pastor of Tamaqua Primitive Methodist Church since 2004. He and his wife, Judi, previously resided in Blakely, where he was pastor since 1996. Pastor Hall is a Lancaster Bible College graduate and later earned his master's degree in counseling from Baptist Bible Graduate School in Clarks Summit. He and his wife are the parents of two adult children, Jonathan and Joshua.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., Tamaqua. If the service is relocated to the arts center, the announcement will be made as early as possible on the Facebook pages of the Zizelmann-Gulla Funeral Home, the American Legion C.H. Berry Post 173, and the American Legion Honor Guard. The announcement will also be made on WMGH.Any organizations interested in joining the parade can do so by contacting Dave Meredith at 570-668-3356.