Former airman to highlight Monday's Wood Dale parade

Nearly 80 units will march in Wood Dale's Memorial Day parade this year.

"We have about six bands so far," said parade organizer Joe Buttice, past commander of Tioga VFW Post 2149, which sponsors the event. "We get a very good turnout for the parade."

This year's grand marshal will be Wood Dale native Benjamin Rasine, a former U.S. Air Force senior airman recently returned from Iraq.

Bands include the Classic Cavaliers drum and bugle corps, and Buttice hopes to get an Italian band from Sicily that is traveling in this country.

Other units include the Shriners, Hawaiian dancers, Bolivian dancers and a variety of floats.

The parade steps off at 11 a.m. Monday, May 31, from Wood Dale Junior High School, 655 N. Wood Dale Road, and proceeds south to Irving Park Road where it turns west to the Veteran's Memorial. A short ceremony follows the parade about noon.

Buttice, a World War II Army veteran, said this will be Wood Dale's 14th annual Memorial Day Parade.