The Veterans Success Center and Student Veterans Organization at Cal State San Bernardino will host the annual Memorial Day observance on Wednesday, May 24, beginning at 9 a.m. on the John M. Pfau Library Lawn.
The program, “Remembering the Sacrifice,” is open to the public. Parking at the university is $6.
After the ceremony will be a community service opportunity for CSUSB students in support of Memorial Day. Students are invited to volunteer at Riverside National Cemetery’s Medal of Honor Memorial from noon to 3:15 p.m., to decorate the graves of the fallen with American flags and flowers.
A bus will be provided for the first 50 students to take them to the Riverside National Cemetery’s Medal of Honor Memorial. The bus will arrive at 11:30 a.m. at the main entrance on University Parkway in front of the flag poles, and will return to campus at about 3:15 p.m.
Registration is required to ride the bus to the national cemetery. To register, call (909) 537-5195.
Also, the Veterans Success Center at the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus will host its Memorial Day observance on Friday, May 26, at 3 p.m. outside the Palm Desert Health Sciences Building. Refreshments will be served following the ceremony and tours of the campus’s Veteran’s Success Center will be offered.
Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday in May each year. The holiday was originally called Decoration Day due to the practice of decorating the graves of soldiers in remembrance of their sacrifice while serving in the nation’s armed services.
One of the first official Memorial Day proclamations was made in 1868 by Gen. John Logan, who was serving as commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. This began the tradition of placing flowers on the graves of all the Union and Confederate service members at Arlington National Cemetery.
More information on the May 24 observance may be found on the event web page at “Memorial Day Ceremony — Remembering the Sacrifice.”