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No one is to sit on the chair that Marblehead’s veterans agent, Roseann Trionfi-Mazzuchelli, refinished herself. The chair is more than 200 years old, and it will be dedicated at the town’s Veterans Day ceremony at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, in the Abbot Hall auditorium.
The ceremony is open to all, according to a list of November events Trionfi-Mazzuchelli gave the Select Board on Oct. 14. The chair, which honors prisoners of war and service members missing in action, will be dedicated with a missing man table ceremony. Information provided to the newsroom says it is dedicated to the more than 83,000 service members who never made it home and that more than 130 Massachusetts cities and towns have a similar one.
Trionfi-Mazzuchelli and Ronald Knight, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 2005, presented the chair to the board Sept. 23, and the board accepted it. The chair was donated to the town; the VFW donated the stanchions, plaque and flags. The board voted to coordinate its placement in Abbot Hall with Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer.
On Oct. 14, Trionfi-Mazzuchelli told the board the chair would go upstairs with the stanchions and flags, and that the dedication would add time to the program.
“So it’ll be a little bit longer of a ceremony, but that’s okay,” she said.
She said she was still confirming whether the VFW would hold a small reception afterward.
The program lists Select Board Vice Chair Moses Grader for the governor’s proclamation and Knight to introduce the speaker, Todd Bajakian, U.S. Army, retired. Kevin Adams, U.S. Army, retired, is listed with Trionfi-Mazzuchelli for the dedication. The Marblehead Chorus, conducted by Colleen Inglis, will sing, and John Collins will play "Taps."
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton will hold a Veteran Town Hall at Abbot Hall at 2 p.m. that afternoon. In a Sept. 14 letter requesting the hall, Moulton said the forum lets veterans share their pride, grief or appreciation of life with one another while residents who have not served listen.
“I know how hard it is to transition from combat to life at home,” he wrote.
Moulton held his first Veteran Town Hall in Marblehead in 2015, according to the letter. The Select Board approved the request Sept. 23.
The day before, the Council on Aging at 10 Humphrey St. will host a veterans breakfast at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, sponsored by the Masons. Trionfi-Mazzuchelli described it as completely open; the events list gives no ending time and no registration requirement. The Council on Aging’s number is 781-631-6225. The Veterans Services Office is at 781-631-0990.
