The 2012 Veterans is year’s parade is being moved up a day and it will take a slightly different path. The parade will step off the corner of Liberty Avs. and Grant street Saturday Nov. 10th at 10:30 and finish at Point Park in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Tony Filardi, chairman of the parade since 1990, said the change is designed to bring in more spectators. He said the parade usually has a large number of participants, but few people observing.
“And this year we’re hoping to stop that and get more people watching this parade,” said Filardi.
The parade will head down Liberty and then take a left on Stanwix Street before turning right onto the Boulevard of the Allies where it will pass the reviewing stand and move into the park. Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner said the parade will inculde another twist, it will be a tribune to post-9/11 service members.
“It’s about time that we reach out in every way possible to say ‘thank you’ to those who have served,” said Wagner.
Wagner told a small gethering at the August Wilson Center where the changes here announced this afternoon that when he got home from serving in Vietnam very few people welcomed them back. He said that shouldn’t happen to the current batch pf returning vets.
This year’s parade will feature almost two dozen local high school marching bands, military units and civic groups according to organizers.
