remembrance day topics for essay

31 Memorial Day Writing Prompts

Memorial Day is a nationally recognized day of remembrance to honor those that have died while serving in the military.

The day is to recognize their service and sacrifice and is an important part of American history.

How to use:

The following writing prompts can be used in any way you see fit. They are aimed to get you thinking and then writing.

You can pick a prompt at random, set a timer and write as much as you can within the time limit, or write one response every day for 31 days in a row.

It’s up to you, that’s the best part of writing creatively!

The prompts:

• What do you do to honor those that have passed on Memorial Day?
• Why do you think Memorial Day is always on the last Monday in May?
• Why do you think Memorial Day is a federal holiday?
• How is Memorial Day different from Veterans Day?
• How do you think we as a nation should honor this holiday? (Ex: moment of silence, special readings)
• Do you know a veteran? Write about them. If not, create a character and describe the life they lived while serving.
• What else would you like to know about Memorial Day? What do you think we should learn in school?
• Do you thank veterans for their service?
• Is Memorial Day the same kind of holiday as, say, Thanksgiving? How are they different?
• Why do you think it is called Memorial Day?
• If Memorial Day was a person, what would they be like?
• How can we be more considerate to those that have served in the military?
• Would you ever serve in the military? Why or why not?
• Do you think other countries have their own Memorial Days?
• When do you think Memorial Day started?
• Why do you think Memorial Day is observed in May instead of another month?
• Pretend you are having a conversation with someone who died fighting for our country. What would you say to them? What would you ask them?
• Do you think Memorial Day or Veterans Day was a holiday first? Why?
• Do you think there should be more days of remembrance for those who have served in our country’s military? Why or why not?
• How can you show kindness to a living veteran today?
• How do people typically observe Memorial Day? (Ex: a ceremony of remembrance, news stations air a moment of silence, etc.)
• What are the branches of the military? Which one would you most like to be a part of?
• Memorial Day used to be called “Decoration Day.” Which name do you prefer, and why?
• The poppy, a flower, has been adopted as the official symbol of remembrance. Do you think it is a fitting symbol? Why or why not?
• Write about what you will do next Memorial Day.
• Do you think Memorial Day should be a specific day every year, like May 30th for example, instead of the last weekend in May? Why or why not?
• What do you think the President of the United States thinks about Memorial Day? Write about their day.
• What can you do to remember Memorial Day all year long? (Ex: use these writing prompts throughout the year, write letters to veterans, etc.)
• How can we help the family members and loved ones of those that have passed serving honorably in the military?
• What kind of music do you think of when you think of Memorial Day? Why?
• Do you think we will always observe Memorial Day? Why or why not?

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If you have any suggestions for new topics, or have questions or comments for us, please reach out.

We love to hear from our audience and want to continue to provide new and exciting writing prompts.

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Memorial Day

By: History.com Editors

Updated: May 24, 2023 | Original: October 27, 2009

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Memorial Day 2023 will occur on Monday, May 29. 

Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.

The Birthplace of Memorial Day and Early Observances 

The Civil War , which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations  was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York , the official birthplace of Memorial Day .

Waterloo—which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

Did you know? Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.

Decoration Day

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.

The date of Decoration Day , as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery , and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there.

Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor the dead on separate days until after World War I .

History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II , The Vietnam War , The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan .

For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date General Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.

Memorial Day Traditions and Rituals 

Cities and towns across the United States host Memorial Day parades each year, often incorporating military personnel and members of veterans’ organizations. Some of the largest parades take place in Chicago , New York and Washington, D.C.

Americans also observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries and memorials. Some people wear a red poppy in remembrance of those fallen in war—a tradition that began with a World War I poem . On a less somber note, many people take weekend trips or throw parties and barbecues on the holiday, perhaps because Memorial Day weekend—the long weekend comprising the Saturday and Sunday before Memorial Day and Memorial Day itself—unofficially marks the beginning of summer.

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Essays on Memorial Day

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Memorial Day: Remembrance and Honor in American Culture

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Memorial Day: What Is It About?

Table of contents, commemorating the fallen, reflecting on history, uniting a nation, honoring families and communities, renewing our commitment, conclusion: a day of remembrance and gratitude, works cited.

• History of Memorial Day. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
• "The Meaning of Memorial Day." History Channel.
• "Memorial Day: A Time to Remember and Reflect." National Constitution Center.

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5 Remembrance Day Lesson Ideas That Deepen Student Learning

Posted by Jasmine Wong on November 9, 2014

Remembrance is an act of humanity and it is about humanity. At Facing History and Ourselves, we often ask ourselves, How do we help students (and ourselves) to remember more than names, dates, and battles? How do we help students to connect to the humanity: the people behind the names, the lives, ideas, and cultures lost, and the legacies that extend beyond the signing of a treaty that signals the end of war?

Here are several lesson ideas to explore on Remembrance Day and during the week to deepen students' learning:

1. Bring Firsthand Stories and Voices to Life using Reader's Theatre

Choose a few moments from texts such as a diaries , interviews , or other firsthand accounts from war that give students insight into the experiences—the everyday life experiences of individuals, or the experiences of individuals through critical moments in history. You can choose texts that represent different aspects of conflict (i.e. love, loss), roles (soldier, political leader, resister, or spouse), or times (beginning, middle, end) in a war.

Reader’s Theatre is an effective way to help students engage in primary text and historical perspective. Through this strategy, students process dilemmas experienced by individuals in a text. In this activity, groups of students are assigned a small portion of the text to present to their peers. As opposed to presenting skits of the plot, Reader’s Theatre asks students to create a performance that reveals a message, theme, or conflict represented by the text. Find additional diary excerpts or readings related to 21st century genocides .

2. Bring Testimony into Your Classroom

At the crux of learning about the history of genocide is hearing testimony from those who were targeted and survived. Meeting a survivor gives students the opportunity to encounter history personally.

Although the victims of the genocides surrounding World War I and World War II are not typically the focus of Remembrance Day, their voices and stories can help us go deeper into thinking about war: When and why do we enter into war? What can happen those who are vulnerable, under the cover of war? How does war take a toll on the norms of a nation? Can soldiers play humanitarian roles in war?

You can find survivor testimonies on our website , or through websites such as the Shoah Foundation's IWitness site . One way to ask students to debrief these testimonies is through a 3-2-1 :

In a journal, write: 3 things that you heard/ learned in the testimony 2 things that you connected with 1 thing you will do, or stop doing in response to hearing the testimony

When we debriefed survivor Max Eisen's testimony at a Peel District school during Holocaust Education Week, we asked students to share their connections with each other, and then to share one on a large post-it note to give to Mr. Eisen. Students themselves placed their notes on the banner provided to spell HOPE.

3. Read and Create Poetry

Facing History teacher Ashley Watts used poems this year to help her students think about how our collective Canadian identity is shaped by the World Wars. First she introduced the poem " In Flanders Fields " to students using Reader's Theatre, then she gave groups additional poems to perform using the same teaching strategy. The poems she chose give voice to Canadians who survived the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide , Japanese internment during WWII, and contemporary refugees of war.

Another suggestion is to try Found Poetry. Found poems are created through the careful selection and organization of words and phrases from existing text. Writing found poems provides a structured way for students to review material and synthesize their learning.

4. Create a Memorial and Stand in Honour of Those it Commemorates

Students can synthesize what they have learned about a historical moment, an individual, group of individuals, or even an idea through the creation of a memorial. The poppy is one enduring symbol of our remembrance for those who fought and died during the Great Wars. We can explore what this symbol represents today as we wear our pins, and what other memorials exist that help us to remember. What other events, individuals, or groups should we remember? What is the best way to remember?

Creating memorials allows for rich differentiation, as students can create their memorials in so many ways: songs, poems, films, paintings, photographs, wordles, or physical monuments are just a few examples.

Facing History teacher Clint Lovell and his class in Barrie, ON honoured the sacrifice of Canadians who gave their lives by creating and laying out crosses for each of the 80 men from Barrie who did not return from WWI. You can read about their work here in the Barrie Examiner.

5. Exploring the Aftermath of Conflict Through Photography

As Sara Terry, the director of The Aftermath Project states, if we do not examine the aftermath of a conflict, we are only learning half the story. The Aftermath Project encourages students to ask questions about what happens after a conflict - how do people rebuild? How does a society learn to heal or move forward? What are the responsibilities of citizens to bring justice and remembrance? What is the price of peace?

Within this resource you can find fantastic photographs, strategies and questions to explore these and other questions—and to inspire students to ask their own questions. If you are looking for an additional photographic collection you could use, try the World Press Photo Exhibitions.Remembrance Day reminds us that we must remember those who lost their lives in war—as well as those who worked to bring peace, rebuild their lives, our communities, and our nations after war.

Remembrance Day also reminds us of our responsibility to learn from our past. We must remember because it is through remembrance of the tragedies of war that meaningful and informed action takes place to end further conflict. We must remember because remembrance of the past is intertwined with a responsibility to bring justice to those who are wronged, to repair the world— Tikkun Olam —and to create safeguards for the future.

Beyond Remembrance Day, how will you continue to help your students understand our role as Canadians in conflicts past and present? How will you help your students remember so that those who suffered did not do so in vain?

Topics: Facing History Together , Facing History and Ourselves , History , Canada , Memorial , Middle School , Lesson Ideas , Literature

Written by Jasmine Wong

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Home » News » Students remember: Essays on Remembrance Day

Students remember: Essays on Remembrance Day

The following essays were submitted by Grade 7/8 students from J.D. Hodgson Elementary School. 

Often on Remembrance Day I think about what it was like for my great grandparents who met during the Second World War. My great grandfather was a mechanic from Scotland who worked on tanks and airplanes. My great grandmother was a parachute packer also from Scotland. I don’t know how they met but I know that they met and got married during the war. What was it like for them? Were they ever in a battle? They were not soldiers but anything can happen in a time of war.

What would I do if I was in their shoes? I would constantly be worried that the hangar I’m working in will be bombed or the plane that I’m packing parachutes for will be shot down. War must be very stressful. I bet all of my great grandparents’ hair turned grey. Mine probably would have too.

Would I be willing to go to war for my country? I would probably be a soldier because I’m not a mechanic or anything and I know how to work a gun. Would I be old enough? They would have to be desperate to let a 12-year-old go to war. What would I do if I stayed home? I heard somewhere that when the older teenagers and young adults went to fight the younger kids took on their normal jobs.       

I wonder how my great grandparents met? Did they serve at the same base or meet in battle?   

I think they were probably at the same base for a while. What happened when they were separated? It was bound to happen. They probably spent all day thinking about each other. But they likely got back together again at some point.

What happened after the war when all the fighting was over? It would take some time to go back to normal life. Some people might not have ever been able to go back to normal life because it wasn’t normal to them. I don’t know if they had PTSD but many people did. When the war was over my great grandparents had a kid then seven years later they moved to Canada to start a new life. 

In conclusion, many of our ancestors fought and died in the war and the only thing left of them is their stories.

Benjamin McMahon

 Remembrance Day

Every year on Nov. 11, we celebrate Remembrance Day to remember the fallen soldiers who risked their lives in both world wars.  On Remembrance Day, I am thankful for the veterans who fought in these wars as they gave freedom for our country.

Remembrance Day was a tradition that was started by King George V to honour the fallen soldiers and those who fought for freedom. The war ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Remembrance Day was originally called Armistice Day. At ll a.m. on Remembrance Day we take a minute of silence to reflect on past and present veterans and the struggles they had to go through while they were away from their families. We take time to remember the people who didn’t come back home to their families. Remembrance Day is celebrated in over 54 commonwealth countries which include Canada, Great Britain, France and Australia. Also they play a popular song on Remembrance Day called the Last Post which is played by a trumpet and people lay wreaths at war memorials. In Canada we remember over 2,300,000 Canadians who fought in the war throughout our nation’s history. As well 118,000 veterans risked their lives and died in the line of duty.

In my community we celebrate Remembrance Day. They lay down wreaths at a ceremony and they say everyone’s name who fought in the war. They also play music from a bagpipe band. In the past my Nana has laid down a wreath at the cenotaph on main street in Haliburton. My Nana did this to honour her dad, my great Papa who fought in the Second World War. 

There are many things that are linked to Remembrance Day. First of all, the poppy. The meaning of the poppy is a symbol of recovery and remembering fallen soldiers who fought for our freedom. The poppy grew on the battlefields after the First World War ended. They grew from lime being deposited into the ground from battle debris. The poppy is worn on your left side because it is closer to your heart the same as military medals. The Queen wears five poppies to represent each branch of service. These branches include the army, navy, air force, civil defence and women. The poppy was made famous by the poem In Flanders Fields . In Flanders Fields is a popular poem during Remembrance Day ceremonies. Medical Officer John McCrae wrote Flanders Fields on a scrap piece of paper in the First World War, 1915. He was not expecting the poem to become so famous and specifically linked with Remembrance Day.

Finally, I feel Remembrance Day is very important to our community because we are able to get together as a community to celebrate and remember the ones who lived and died for our freedom. I hope Remembrance Day can be celebrated for many years to come.  

By Brechin Johnston

Remember the day

I’m sitting at home right now thinking about Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day is about remembering the men and women who risked their lives for our country and its people. If you talk and think about it, we wouldn’t have homes or all the luxuries we have if it wasn’t for the soldiers who fought for our country’s freedom. I couldn’t imagine how it would feel to sleep and fight in trenches when at home we have nice warm comfortable beds. If someone in my family was at war I would be very scared for them but I would also be proud that they are giving up everything to fight for the freedom of our country.

I bet it would be hard for the families of soldiers, who were at home, not knowing if their husband, brother, sister, or son was alive or not, wondering each and every day. Think about the families who had someone come to them or receive a letter saying that your son, husband, brother had been killed, gone missing or was stolen by the enemies.

It’s so cool when you get to hear a person who has been to war talk, but it’s also scary knowing that this actually happened and may happen again. It’s crazy when you think about what the veterans must feel or what they felt. 

Our veterans are old and they will soon not be here anymore so we will have to learn the history of what happened so we can keep telling their stories to our kids and grandkids.

We wear  poppies on our shirts to symbolize the blood that has been shed by soldiers throughout the war. Plastic poppies are sold to the public and people wear them on their shirts or hats. Remembrance Day takes place every year on 11th of November. It’s held to remember all those who died fighting in the world wars.

Every year our school goes to a ceremony in town and we watch people march down the roads, making cool music with drums and other instruments. Some veterans even get to talk a little bit about their experience. It’s really cool to see the perspectives that people who have been to war have about it all. Some veterans even get pushed in wheelchairs or walk with the parade and play a little instrument. 

On November 11 at 11:11 the war ended, so that’s when we take a moment of silence every year to think about everything that has happened in these wars and all the heroes that gave our country freedom. 

Lara Gallant

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9 Questions About Remembrance Day Answered

Historian and SCS instructor Nick Gunz answers your Remembrance Day questions, and reminds us why it matters in 2021.

Like many Canadians, or people living in Canada, you may have been attending Remembrance Day memorials for years, but never really understood why they happen. You may have stood in silence at 11 am on November 11th, but not had a clear sense of why we do this ceremonial gesture. I’m here to answer some top questions about Remembrance Day, and explain not only the history surrounding it, but how it’s evolved over time.

1. What IS Remembrance Day exactly?

Remembrance Day is one of the major civic holidays on the Canadian calendar but, in Ontario, it generally isn't a day off work. It's been observed, annually, since the end of the First World War. In 1931, it was fixed to the hour of 11 am on the 11th of November: notionally the exact anniversary (ex. time-zone complications) of the ceasefire that ended the First World War in 1918.

2. Is this the one where you have barbecues and stereo equipment sales and stuff?

That's Memorial Day in the US. In Canada, Remembrance Day is an extremely solemn occasion and is taken very, very seriously. I'm not kidding: make light of this and you risk causing offence. 

Different countries have different traditions when it comes to commemorating war dead. In some places, it's an observance specifically for people who are, or were, in the military; in others it's a public, whole-of-society thing. In some places, it takes on a triumphal tone, often with loud parades and cheering; in others it's a day of mourning.

3. Ok, so how does Canada mark the occasion?

Canada was closely tied to the UK in the years following 1918, and so it follows what might be called the "Commonwealth model". There are lots of countries in this group: some you might expect (New Zealand, Kenya), others which might be surprising (the Israeli "Day of Remembrance" reflects the history of Mandatory Palestine, and of Jewish soldiers fighting with UK forces in the First and Second World Wars).

There's a lot of variation within the "Commonwealth model". The Australians have their main ceremony at the break of dawn on April 25th. The British tend to do it on the Sunday nearest November 11th. The Israelis, as one might expect, time it according to the Hebrew calendar (April or May, depending on the year).

In every case, though, there are three basic elements: a) mass participation in, b) a symbolic funeral which, c) is built around a (usually two minute) act of silence.

4. How do you "act" silence?

By standing still and not saying anything. In the old days they used to halt traffic. This stopped happening some time in or after the 1950's, but you'll still see people stopping, wherever they are, and just waiting for two minutes before they get on with their day.

The "two-minute silence" started in South Africa during WWI and quickly spread to the rest of the Commonwealth. It's easy to see why: it works across cultures, it's contemplative, funerary, participatory, and emotionally effecting. In Canada, silence has become the dominant theme in public memorialisation. Pretty much whenever Canadians need to memorialise something, they stand in silence. It's a whole thing.

5. So that's the "ceremony" I keep hearing about? Standing in silence?

For a lot of people, yes. You are encouraged, though, to attend one of the many public ceremonies that take place at the war memorials dotted around the country. These typically last about an hour and end with the two-minutes silence at 11 am.

This being a COVID year, however, a lot of these ceremonies will go virtual. The U of T's war memorial is Soldier's Tower, next to Hart House on the St. George campus. You can sign up for the socially-distanced livestream here .

6. Is this a specifically Christian ceremony?

Weirdly, for something designed for the interwar period, not really. In the early 20's, Canada was already a multi-cultural society, and the "Imperial" forces with which Canadians fought during WWI (representing a quarter of the world's population) were wildly multicultural. The ceremony, then, was designed to combine religious themes from all sorts of popular religions at the time, and also to be accessible to the non-religious.

For instance, you may have heard Canadians calling their local war memorial a 'Cenotaph' (from the Greek, literally "empty tomb"). The one in front of Old City Hall in Toronto is a Cenotaph, as is the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Governments were encouraging the building of these explicitly-secular "empty tomb" moments as early as 1919, specifically so that they could be accessible across religious lines. Which, when you think about it, is surprisingly 'woke' for a society that was also vigorously suppressing Indigenous culture and was about to outright ban the immigration of Chinese people. History, as it turns out, is complicated, messy, and often very dark. Which is something we think about on November 11th.

7. The red pins everybody is wearing: what’s that about?

Those are symbolic poppy flowers.

There's a long European tradition of using botanical emblems to represent special days. Not always flowers, by the way: there is a Welsh tradition to mark St David's Day by wearing a leek. In France, one commemorates veterans and victims of war by wearing a symbolic cornflower. French army uniforms of the Great War were light blue. The image of young troops marching to the slaughter in their cornflower-blue uniforms, as vibrant and impermanent as the blossoms of spring, became a powerful and melancholy symbol in that country.

In the Commonwealth, during the war, soldiers began to see a similar symbolic meaning in the blood-red poppy that grew in profusion across the Western Front. Poppies like to grow in disturbed earth (that's why you get them in newly-ploughed fields) and that's why they grew so readily in the churned up earth of no man's land and, especially, on freshly dug graves.

One finds poppies again and again in wartime poetry, the most famous example being In Flanders Fields by U of T alum LtCol John McCrae: "In Flanders fields the poppies blow", he writes in the voice of the newly dead, "Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place".

After the war, veterans' groups began to sell poppies as a fundraiser. In Canada, this is done by the Royal Canadian Legion.

8. Yeah, the darn things won't stay on!

I know, I know… I try weaving the pin in and out of my coat a few times. It creates more friction, and they seem to last a little longer.

In May of 2000, the Canadians repatriated a so-called Unknown Soldier to be entombed next to the cenotaph in Ottawa. The following November, members of the crowd at the Remembrance Day ceremony began, quite spontaneously, to take off their poppies and lay it on this grave. It's become a tradition for some people, now. If you see somebody without a poppy on the afternoon of Remembrance Day, that could mean that they left it at a war memorial.

9. So, Remembrance Day… changes?

Yeah, it does. Remembrance Day has always been a combination of top-down organization and bottom-up popular innovation. Over the years it's evolved, organically, out of the culture of the day.

And that's the deal with Remembrance Day: it's a point of connection. The people who designed this observance created a monument that, in order to work, had to be re-built each year. 

Think about what it means, symbolically I mean, to stand in a group of people but in silence. You're there in a crowd doing a thing together, but you're also deeply alone . Silence is a connection, bridging divides of language and culture and tradition but it's also a barrier, a cutting off .

And it isn't just a social paradox, it's also temporal. Silence is made of time: it happens in a specific moment at a specific place. But silence is also timeless: it is exactly the same in any year. Silence sounds the same in 2021 as it did in 1921, and it will sound exactly the same in 2121, G'd willing we're still around to not hear it.

So yeah, that's the deal. This year we'll observe that silence for the hundred and second time in Canada. And every second will be fresh, and new, and made by us, and also completely the same. Always fresh, always raw, always exactly the same. 

Because that's what grief is like.

Nick Gunz is a naval and intelligence historian, specialising in the link between intelligence analysis and military strategy. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Toronto before going on to graduate work at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Prior to returning to Toronto to teach at U of T SCS, he spent several years teaching undergraduates at the University of Cambridge and at Yale. His SCS course, Apocalypse Now and Again: Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Crisis , begins in March 2022.

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Memorial Day Closures for Seattle Parks and Recreation 

Many Seattle Parks and Recreation facilities will be closed Monday, May 27, 2024 in observance of Memorial Day. 

These facilities and services are  CLOSED : 

• Community centers and teen centers 
• Environmental learning centers 
• Indoor swimming pools 
• Green Lake Small Craft Center 
• Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center 
• Amy Yee Tennis Center 
• Seattle Japanese Garden and Volunteer Park Conservatory (closed regularly on Mondays) 

These facilities are  OPEN  on regular schedules: 

• Parks 
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Holiday plans at state park? Put your wallet away; park fees waived

The state of Florida is suspending all entrance fees to state parks over Memorial Day weekend.

Gov. Ron DeSantis came to Naples Tuesday to announce the suspension of the entrance fees.

The fee waiver is from May 24 to May 27.

“It’s important that people have the ability to go out and enjoy our great natural environment,” DeSantis said at the Naples Yacht Club where he made the announcement. “And that’s a sentiment that we share with respect to our state parks.”

He also touted how the state has enjoyed record summer visitation with more than 35 million visitors between the months of July and September, which has had a great impact on the economy.

“It’s a lot of people coming from other states who come to visit and other countries,” he said. “And part of the reason I think people come to Florida is we have the best beaches. We have the best fishing and we have the best state parks in the entire country.”

Florida’s state parks in 2023 had 29 million visitors which generated an annual economic impact of $3.6 billion, DeSantis said.

He also said that Florida’s state parks have been awarded four gold medals from the National Parks and Recreation Association, more than any other state.

In 2023 the state introduced a great outdoors initiative that between October 2023 and January of this year provided a 50 percent discount on Florida State Park passes and sportsmen fishing and hunting licenses.

“And what you saw, because of that initiative, we sold more than 55,000 passes, including more than 40,000 family park passes, which has quadrupled the number of passes sold during the same period last year,” he said.

“We’ve invested more than $440 million in our state parks because we want to ensure that Florida families are able to enjoy them now and in the future,” DeSantis said.

The governor said in the next budget year, he intends to include $15 million more for state parks.

Shawn Hamilton, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, lauded the governor for his “record investments” in environmental restoration and for maintaining the state’s natural resources for generations to come.

“I challenge you to get out this holiday and spend time with your family connecting to the resources (and) honoring our nation’s heroes,” he said.

DeSantis last week visited the Naples Botanical Garden to announce the state is continuing to combat the harmful effect of red tide through a research- and technology-driven initiative.

The plan is a public-private partnership between the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.

Established by the state in 2019, the program was set to expire on June 30, 2025. The bill will allow it to continue indefinitely.