The Centennial at the Grass Roots: Multiple Commemorations in Los Angeles

Program Narrator Jonathan Flora at 
Hollywood Post 43 of the American Legion

California's WWI Centennial Task Force did a dynamic job commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armistice,  conducting or supporting five events over three days in November.  Key member Courtland Jindra played a role in all the activities.  The center piece was the Task Force's program on "Southern California in the War" at Hollywood Post 43 of the  American Legion on the 12th of November.  The program delivered by multiple individuals drew on first-hand accounts of the region's participation in the war from April 1917 past the Armistice signing, also remembering the Doughboys still serving in Russia.

A Re-enactor with Courtland Jindra of the Task Force 

There were four other events supported by the Task Force over the three days.

• A WWI presentation at the Oneonta Club of South Pasedena
• A  WWI display at the LA High School Memorial Park (a WWI memorial park with a memorial library on the site)
• A presentation on Southern California at the Glendora Public Library
• A tree planting at the Victory Memorial Grove in Los Angeles
  (See our earlier artilce on the grove HERE )

Courtland as Master of Ceremonies and the Tree Planters in Action

The Hollywood event concluded with this remembrance:

Our state paid a high price with more than 3400 giving their lives, of that nearly 450 being from Los Angeles.  In the County of Los Angeles over thirty memorials were dedicated to the war, including this very building that we sit in today. Sadly the USA's sacrifice has forgotten in the century since.  It is our hope, that our program will have illuminated this blind spot in our history and honored the generation that gave so much.

Thank you, California, for honoring our heritage.