From Serviceman to Public Servant

The Memorial Day holiday for many means cookouts, shopping and an extra day off of work or school.

For Avon and Army veteran Kevin Ward, the holiday means something deeper and more personal.

Honoring those who have given their life for our freedom is what the holiday is about for Ward.

Enlisting in the United States Army at the age of seventeen, Ward spent his young adulthood helping to fight for that freedom. After serving in Germany and also in Somalia during Operation Restore Hope, Ward returned to the United States, wanting to serve in another way.  

Ward took that desire for service into government, and is now the Third Ward councilman.

“I look at myself now, and say, 'What can I do for the community, what can I do for the people?', and it seems so trivial compared to what those men and women have done for us and I truly believe that, and that’s why I try to do everything that I can for others,” said Ward.

Public service requires dedication and commitment, Ward said, just like military service.

“We sit around and we talk about a lot of things that people do, (but) what I’ve done and what my friends and other people do is nothing compared to what the soldiers that we are honoring on Memorial Day have done,” he said.  “They’ve actually given their lives to give us the freedoms that we have in our country, and I think sometimes we become so wrapped up in the barbecues and the three-day sales and all that stuff that we forget that the real reason for the holiday is to honor those who have died.”