NORTH WILDWOOD – The city honored the country on Friday, May 1 with a special Loyalty Day service and celebration.
Due to the chance of showers, this year’s service was held inside City Hall, at 901 Atlantic Avenue. But the rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the attendees.
VFW Post #5941 Commander Joseph Orlando told the crowd that it was an important day to renew loyalty to the country.
Loyalty, he said, is about serving the community, serving one another and serving the nation.
“The city of North Wildwood is proud to recognize this very important day in American history”, said Mayor Bill Henfey. “This is especially important for the brave men and women who have fought for our country’s freedom, and we encourage everyone in the city to fly their patriotic colors on May 1st to support our veterans of today and yesterday”.
May 1st of each year is designated as Loyalty Day by Congressional Act 85-529 of 1958. The passage of this particular act was one of the brightest victories in the long, proud history of Americanism achievements by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.
It was the culmination of a long struggle to set aside a special day on which Americans could pointedly counteract the Communists, who were using May Day for their annual hate demonstrations against our nation. Loyalty Day was not a spur of the moment concept. The basic idea of staging patriotic demonstrations to offset the communist rallies actually started in 1930. These annual demonstrations were simply termed Americanism rallies.
The VFW fight to obtain federal government recognition of May 1 as ” Loyalty Day ” began in earnest with the adoption of a resolution at the Golden Jublilee VFW National Convention in Miami in 1949 . A move to gain official endorsement of ” Loyalty Day ” was finally launched in Congress in 1954 with the introduction of a House Joint Resolution by Representative James E. Van Zandt of Pennsylvania, a three- time Commander -in Chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
In 1955, Congress approved it, but it simply designated May 1, 1955 as ” Loyalty Day ”. Still not satisfied, the VFW continued to push for a bill that would proclaim May 1 of each year as ”Loyalty Day ”. The official recognition was finally achieved with the congressional adoption of Public Law 529 in 1958.
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