Midtown celebrates 45th annual Veterans Day parade

In Midtown Atlanta, the 45th annual Veterans Day Parade is underway and that's where we'll find our Kim Leffler. Kim, thanks so much for joining us. I hear the music. What's happening behind you? Hey, Jasmine. Yeah, the parade kicked off really in about the last 15 or 20 minutes or so. I'm just going to flip this around and give you a look at what we are seeing right now. It's mainly been a lot of different veterans organizations as well as school groups that are making their way down Peachtree Street here. We are right by the High Museum of Art. So this is going to be going all the way down to Fifth Street. Something to keep in mind if you're in the Midtown area this afternoon. Now, as you mentioned, this is the 45th Annual Veterans Day Parade here in Midtown and this year it is honoring veterans of the Global War on Terror and also commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9-11, which of course we did just mark back in September. But several veterans are also taking part in this parade. I did catch up with one veteran who served in the Army and Navy and he spoke about the importance of doing parades like this and also what it means to see all of these folks that you see here that are coming out to show their support for veterans. Take a listen. We try, as the American Legion Riders, to get out and support all the veteran causes. Me personally, being a veteran, I like to be involved with what's happening in the community and in the country itself, but just getting out here and just being supportive of everybody and getting the veterans out and doing stuff makes a big difference. I know I've already seen a couple people lined up already that are out here for this event, for this parade. For all the veterans, what does it mean to see people supporting you guys in that way? It's huge to have everybody out supporting us. When people came back from Vietnam, there wasn't the support, but nowadays, you see much more support. You have a lot more people being thankful, coming up and thanking us for our service, which really means a lot to us because it is a selfless thing to join the military, and hopefully we get more and more people that actually are joining the military and putting in their service because it makes a big difference, and it is a great community to be part of. And I know this year, the parade is also honoring the 25th anniversary of 9-11. So, you know, is there an extra, I guess, you know, importance or extra weight with it being such a big anniversary this year for this parade today? Well, me personally, I think all those events are way heavily on most of the veterans because a lot of us were involved during that time, myself. myself. You know, I had served prior to that and a lot of us that did serve wanted to actually go back in and be more supportive at that point. So I mean, yeah, being the anniversary, it definitely makes a big impact for the veterans. So again, the parade underway here going down Peachtree Street here in Midtown. I actually just saw a couple of groups throwing some candy. So if you are out and about, be sure to and coming to the parade here, be sure to keep your eye out for that. But again, this is going to be going on for the next little bit here. So if you are in the Midtown area, Be sure to just be aware of that and be aware that Peachtree Street is going to be closed. But, of course, we're going to have much more on this coming up later on this afternoon. Jasmine. All right, Kim. Sounds good. Thanks so much for joining us to talk about this. We'll see you later.