----- Original Message ----- From: Ardis Boone Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2003 5:49 PM Subject: Memorial Sunday We had a beautiful day here today, too--in more ways than one. Over 5000 bikers(motorcycles) rode into St. Anne about 11:30 behind a truck loaded with a $10,000.00 monument honoring all veterans of the St. Anne area,in the name of the first death of the Iraq thing, Ryan Beaupre. It was a very touching program, in more ways than one. At one point, the announcer called for all the veterans of the WW II, Korean, Viet Nam to come down in front of the monument. I did not realize so many from St. Anne had been serving. Even had one back from this Iraq thing, he spoke with a very touching unrehearsed speech. Several tears in the audience after that one. Right where we were sitting, nearly every other chair emptied out to go up front, mostly our school mates. My Bob came back with tears in his eyes. Nikki & Mark Beaupre had to be the proudest people on earth, with the greeting those bikers bestowed on them. Little ole St. Anne really put on a wonderful couple of hours. At one time they announced that the first motorcyle was at the Y--1 & 17 corner and the last group was a few miles north of Momence with no traveler, other than bikers, between. I never have seen a group of bikers that behaved in such a dignified manner. St. Anne had large tanks of ice, with water bottles, for the bikers. I wish you could have seen our Carlie ( 2 1/2 yr) reaching down in that ice and passing it too the bikers. I think the newspaper caught that one. If I sound like a bragging Grandmother, that is exactly what I was this afternoon.