Hundreds gathered at Thomson Elementary School Friday as kids showed their appreciation for veterans with its Third Annual Veterans Day Celebration. "It was a great turnout today," Thomson School Principal Gregg Gilligan said Friday after the ceremony. "Kathy O'Neil, the school nurse, and Donna Dragosits, the music teacher, did a great job organizing it and setting it up." The event featured kids reading poems and singing songs to veterans. One particularly interesting performance was by a group of kids from the Annie Sargent Elementary School who are non-verbal but sang with the help of …

Community members gathered on a sunny fall day for the annual Veterans Day Parade. The parade got underway at 10:15 a.m. on the corner of First and Main streets. Marching in the parade were Veterans if Foreign Wars and American Legion veterans, Clan MacPherson bagpipers, the North Andover High School Marching Band, the North Andover Police and VFW Color Guards, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts and Brownies. The parade made its way down Main Street to Patriots Memorial Park where a commemorative ceremony was held.  Chairman of the North Andover Patriotic Observance Committee, Chief Edward V…

In recognition of Veterans Day, Patch is honored to announce its partnership with the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, a five-star charity that provides financial, rehabilitation and transitional services to members of the United States Armed Forces and their families. Established in 2000, the fund originally provided financial support to the dependents of service members who lost their lives while serving the nation. Since then, the fund has expanded its support of veterans by building state of the art centers for rehabilitating wounded warriors and service members suffering from post-traumatic …

When Lou DePrizio returned from service overseas, he didn't talk about his time in Vietnam. He didn't tell people he was a veteran. He didn't even bring it up in conversations with his friends. "I was smart enough to know that people didn't think much of service people at that time," DePrizio said. "I never said I served, never said I was in Vietnam. Never stopped even at a store in uniform. I wasn't going around waving the flag or waving my uniform at that time." A Job to Do DePrizio, now 62, went into the military when he was 20 years old, as others were heading to college or avoiding …

North Andover is celebrating Veterans Day for two days. The first day will include a parade in the morning, and the second day will feature a morning ceremony held by students in honor of local veterans. Thursday The North Andover Veterans Day Parade will start at 10 a.m. on the corner of First and Main streets. It will proceed up Main street to the Veterans Memorial Park, where there will be ceremonial services. If the weather is bad, the services will be held in North Andover Middle School Auditorium at 10:30 a.m. After the services, the parade will proceed up Main Street to the Veterans of…