First-Responder Pipe Band Raises Money To Play At D-Day Ceremony

ARVADA, CO – A Colorado Irish pipe band made up of metro Denver firefighters and police officers will travel to Normandy, France and Belgium to participate ceremonies in honor of the the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. The group, Colorado Emerald Society Pipe Band is raising money to send its members on a tour to take part in "tributes, memorials, and ceremonial parades," an online GofundMe fundraiser states.

According to the website, the band will perform at

• June 6 The official D Day Ceremony at the Brittany American Cemetery & Memorial
• June 7 The official Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial
• June 8 The D Day Parade in Sainte-Mère-Eglise
• Several locations, battle sites, and cemeteries in and around Belgium

"It is our mission to pay tribute to our fallen and we can think of no better way to honor the servicemen and woman who have kept us free than by remembering their courage and sacrifice by playing on those hallowed beaches," the group said in a statement.

"It's been really pretty special. A lot of the guys have researched their own family members that served and fought over there and so we're going to spend a lot of time looking for the places where their grandfathers might have been and those places," Mike West, the band's pipe major told Fox31.

"[M]y dad actually fought in the South Pacific, so you know, maybe one day I can knock that off the bucket list," said James Dawe, an Arvada firefighter in the band told Fox31.

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