In cities across South Florida on Monday, Memorial Day events will take place to remember the lives of military personnel lost while serving in the United States armed forces.
The city of Coral Springs held a ceremony starting at 9 a.m. at Veterans Park, located at 8601 Royal Palm Boulevard.
The city of Hialeah held an event inside Triangle Park located at 290 Palm Avenue. The city of Davie held a parade and ceremony at the Davie Fire Administration building located at 6901 Orange Drive.
"Memorial Day, it gives us that time to sit back and reflect, what does this mean to us," said Cliff Freiwald from the South Florida Council of the Boy Scouts of America. "All these people that have given the ultimate sacrifice and they’ve unfortunately given their life, but they’ve done it for their nation."
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A ceremony featured speakers honoring veterans from all branches of the military.
"Scouts naturally wear a uniform so they associate themselves with other uniformed groups. And the uniform itself bring a lot of pride." said Freiwald.
Miami Beach will hold a commemoration event at 3 p.m. in front of the city's Police Headquarters located at 1100 Washington Avenue. Members of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts will hold a wreath-laying ceremony and 21-gun salute.
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Officials on Miami Beach have expected more tourists to arrive throughout the holiday weekend.
"Really what happens is I have a relatively small city of 85,000 people, but on these kinds of weekends, you could have hundreds of thousands of people on our barrier island," said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber. "It reaches occupancy where it's very difficult to move around."
Memorial Day weekend is considered a high-impact weekend, which means police are working 13-hour shifts, license plate readers will be activated along the causeways, and code enforcement will step up patrol for businesses.
The weekend marks the unofficial start of summer, which means thousands flocked to see the Hyundai Air and Sea Show and to get some sun.
"We know sometimes this weekend can be challenging, but we think by programing the Hunyadi Air and Sea Show it will be more manageable for our visitors and our residents," Gelber said.
Gelber estimated the show would bring about 10,000 people to the city.
