There were no marching bands and the usual panoply and crowds of people were gone, but the city made the best of its salute to veterans on Saturday, Nov. 7.

Hundreds of grateful spectators came out to catch the procession of vehicles on Main Street and thank the nation’s veterans, said Kristy Pachciarz, Special Events Coordinator for the city of Auburn’s Parks, Arts and Recreation Program.

The procession was the city’s kickoff to its 5-day salute to veterans program, which ended with a virtual video tribute on Wednesday, Nov. 11.

“We had almost 450 participants in the procession, and then we had 12 groups of spectators that we encouraged to physically distance, but they didn’t fit the procession criteria of being a veteran or active military or such, so they were some of the groups that were seen along the procession route,” said Pachciarz.

“The veterans and active military that participated were really grateful that they had the opportunity to do something. A lot of them were thrilled when they showed up at Veterans Memorial Park at the start of it, and a lot of them said thank you and were happy that we didn’t just cancel and not provide an alternative,” said Pachciarz.