Sanford sets Memorial Day remembrance at Veterans Memorial Park

Park Avenue will turn into Heroes’ Avenue when Sanford stages its Memorial Day remembrance at Veterans Memorial Park on Monday, May 25, 2026. The city’s observance will run from 9 a.m. to noon on the shore of Lake Monroe, with the formal remembrance ceremony beginning at 10 a.m.

The display is built to be seen up close. Restored military vehicles will line the route alongside fire trucks, emergency command vehicles and law-enforcement equipment, giving families and veterans a chance to move between the exhibits before the ceremony starts. The city is inviting guests of all ages to walk the park, connect with veterans and first responders, and explore the monuments and memorial bricks that already make Veterans Memorial Park a place of public remembrance.

Joseph Cote, a Seminole County veterans service officer, will serve as master of ceremonies. Captain Dan Sinclair, a decorated U.S. Army artillery officer who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and is active with the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association Central Florida Chapter 20-16, will deliver the keynote address. Casselberry Veterans, Inc. is sponsoring the event, underscoring the countywide reach of the observance.

The setting carries its own history. Veterans Memorial Park, at 110 W. Seminole Blvd., is dedicated to those who have served the country. Historical references trace the site to Sanford’s 1920s waterfront bulkhead project, when it functioned as the city pier and yacht basin and later included a bandshell, a flagpole and a fountain dedicated in memory of World War I veterans. The park was renamed Veterans Memorial Park in 1973 and rededicated to veterans of all American wars.

Sanford is also tying the ceremony to America 250, the nation’s upcoming semiquincentennial. The city’s history notes place Sanford on the south shore of Lake Monroe at the head of navigation on the St. Johns River, with Fort Mellon dating back to the Seminole Wars. That backdrop gives the Memorial Day program a wider frame: a waterfront park shaped by military memory will again become a public stage for remembrance.

The city’s 2026 format continues a Sanford tradition. Last year’s Memorial Day observance used the same Heroes’ Avenue-to-ceremony sequence, with Barron Mills as keynote speaker, and a 2023 event featured Seminole State College’s brass quintet before the main program. In Sanford, Memorial Day is becoming more than a routine stop on the calendar: it is a visible civic ritual built around vehicles, music, history and the people who served.