J.C. Price American Legion Post 107’s annual Memorial Week celebration starts Friday and runs through May 31 at the post, 1433 Old Wilkesboro Road.
This year’s event, the 70th sponsored by J.C. Price, will be dedicated to Mark Hunter, a Salisbury police officer and Post 107 member who died last year.
No alcoholic beverages and no dogs, except service dogs, will be permitted on post grounds. Parking will be free on a first-come, first-served basis. Since the parking lot will be newly paved, no large or heavy trucks will be permitted on the midway.
The vendor will be TC‘s Amusements of Rock Hill, S.C., which incorporates carnivals, fairs and thrill rides. The rides will run May 29-31. Individual tickets will be sold for rides, as well as a $10 wrist band that allows a child on all the rides and enters the child in a bicycle raffle. A bicycle will be raffled every hour starting at 5 p.m. on May 29.
Safety rules are in place, and EMS and Salisbury police protection will be available on the midway, a Post 107 news release said.
A memorial service for Post 107 members who died in 2013 will be held at White Rock AME Zion Church in Granite Quarry on Sunday during the morning service. All members, auxiliary and families are invited.
Gospel singing will be held on May 26 and 27 starting at 6:30 p.m. in the Post Home. Contact Comrade Homer Robertson at 704-636-5688 if your group is interested in performing. An initiation service for new members will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday before the gospel singing.
The post will sponsor a booth exhibiting T-shirts and fragrance lamps.
The Post 107 auxiliary will sponsor a dance Saturday. An open house will be held May 28. And the House Committee will sponsor entertainment May 29-31.
The event began after the emanicipation of slaves to honor northern soldiers in the Civil War. It took place at Soldier’s Memorial Church, drawing thousands.
In the 1930s, the Negro Civic League and J.C.. Price American Legion Post 107 co-sponsored the event. After the Negro Civic League dissolved in the 1940s, J.C. Price became the sole sponsor.
For more information, call 704-636-2950.