One Woman Vowed to Remember

Carmella LaSpada was a youthful volunteer in a military hospital during the Vietnam War when she made a pact with a severely wounded soldier to always remember the suffering and sacrifice.

It’s a promise she has kept.

Thirty years ago, she founded No Greater Love, a nonprofit organization that has ministered to thousands of families mourning the slain or the captured.

Last year, LaSpada successfully pushed for the Memorial Day “Moment of Remembrance,” which was christened by Congress last year after LaSpada helped write a bill and gather support.

During the moment, which occurs at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day, the measure says all Americans should stop and remember the deaths of those who fought beneath the nation’s flag.

“I want us to contemplate those things that bind us together. The legacy of those who died to make this country better is something that can strengthen us, unite us,” said LaSpada, who is in her 60s.

LaSpada’s push for remembrance began in 1996 as Memorial Day approached. LaSpada began to question the spirit of the holiday, wondering if Americans were at all concerned with remembering.

She tested her doubts on a couple of kids playing in Washington’s Lafayette Park, asking them what Memorial Day meant to them.

They giggled and told her it was the day the swimming pool opened.

“It really hit me that for many people, the day is more about getting to sleep in late, have a picnic or relax than it is about remembering the grave suffering many Americans endured,” LaSpada said.

LaSpada used her contacts from over the years to initiate the successful “National Moment of Remembrance,” passed by Congress early last year.

That was nice, but not enough to satisfy LaSpada. Last December, she lobbied for a National Moment of Remembrance Act, meant to “reclaim memorial Day as the sacred and noble event it is intended to be.”

The act, approved by Congress on Dec. 28, established public and private funds to encourage stamps, medals and coins relating to remembering the war dead, produce educational materials about America’s wars and sponsor conferences.

LaSpada says she is not finished yet. This year, she plans to push for an official Memorial Day song.

On The Net:

National Moment of Remembrance: https://https://www.remember.gov/