Wicomico High School will welcome guests for the dedication of its newly refurbished memorial garden. The community is invited to attend.

Guests may begin arriving at 8:45 a.m., and the JROTC at Wicomico High School will guide visitors to the memorial garden and lead a dedication program starting at 9 a.m.

Birdhouses with plaques for deceased members of the Wicomico High family will be placed in the garden.

Over the past several weeks, Wicomico High and JROTC, with support from Foundation for Human Potential, Salisbury’s Promise and ShoreCorps/PALS AmeriCorps, have cleaned and weeded the garden, laid stone, improved walkways, installed rain barrels, built birdhouses, and made other improvements to the memorial garden as an environmental stewardship project.

Thursday’s ceremony will include the dedication of the memorial garden and the laying of a memorial wreath.

North Salisbury will welcome the Salisbury Fire Department for a Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance program for all NSS students, grades 3-5.

The fire department will bring two ladder trucks, four ambulances, 25 firefighters and a bagpiper to join in the observance.

The program will begin at 9:10 a.m. Thursday. The theme this year is “Peace in our Community and Peace in our World, Peace Begins with Us.”

Students from 5th Grade will share a PowerPoint presentation including the timeline of events that took place on the morning of September 11th and a wonderful illustrated book written by A.B. Curtiss called “The Little Chapel that Stood.”

(The book tells the story of a little chapel beside the World Trade Center. On 9/11, the chapel served as a staging area for firefighters and police: “Oh, what gallant men we did lose/who never came back to get their shoes.”)

The 4th grade students will sing a patriotic selection.

All NSS students will be writing a wish for our world on white ribbons, and parents and students will begin tying the ribbons to the fence outside the school starting at 7:10 a.m., to serve as a gentle reminder of the significance of the day.

Each class will go outside to tie them on the fence located in the front of the school.

The morning’s activities will conclude on the playground with a dove release by White Wings of Eden.