Card parade taking over the Cape Fear to celebrate Veterans Day

HAMPSTEAD, NC (WWAY)–Veterans Day is usually celebrated in November with a big parade in downtown Wilmington, but with the coronavirus the festival committee has had to get creative in 2020.

They have started a new way to say thank you this year. It will start with collecting handwritten cards from kids and adults across the Cape Fear to send to the veterans. They are calling the project the Veterans Day Card Parade.

“This Veterans Day parade would’ve been our fourth year and we were pretty excited about all the things that were already lined up, but yeah that didn’t happen,”says Parade Chairman Marc Biddison. “So, we wanted to find another way that we could say thanks to the areas veterans and the parade of letters kind of happened.”​

It’s an idea that has spread all across the three county area with boxes being placed outside nearly every elementary school. That includes at South Topsail Elementary, where students are thankful for veterans and the opportunity they have to write them letters.

“I really wanted to do this cause they served for us,”says South Topsail 5th grader Julia Conner.

A few students say they’ve never been able to attend the parade before, so this is the next best thing.

“It makes me feel good cause usually I wouldn’t be able to go to the parade,”said elementary school student Zach Breisacher. 

They say they have plenty of veterans to be proud of.

“My dads a veteran and my four uncles are veterans and so is my grandpa,”says Emily Atwood.

The parade committee says they will continue to take in cards for the next couple of weeks. If you’re interested in getting involved or sending a car yourself you visit this link.