The restoration and rededication of Soldiers and Sailors Park in Sanford on Memorial Day was a high point for community spirit. As a result this park, which had once been overgrown and neglected, is again a fitting memorial to those who served this country.

Those who labored on this project, and those who participated in the ceremony on Memorial Day deserve recognition and thanks. These participants showed their respect for monuments like Soldiers and Sailors Park, and the sacrifices that inspired it.

Neglect had allowed the park behind the former Edison School to become overgrown and unkempt. But in recent years volunteers painstakingly renewed the grounds, brought in benches and a flagpole, and established a pedestrian path.

The park was established in 1929 to honor those called to duty during World War I. Nearly five million Americans served in the armed forces during what they called The Great War, and almost all are now gone.

The last American survivor, Frank Buckles of West Virginia, is honorary chairman of a foundation dedicated to establishing a World War I memorial on the  Washington Mall, near memorials for World War II, Korean and Vietnam War. Those lost in these 20th century conflicts are all equally deserving of remembrance.

Like Sanford’s Soldiers and Sailors Park, such tangible reminders of those terrible conflicts will help ensure that our respect for those who served does not fade away.