Veterans stand in a place of honor at the Cultura Garden Club’s Every Light a Prayer for Peace event Dec. 3.

Against an evening chill, people gathered in front of the Franklin County Courthouse in downtown Russellville for the Cultura Garden Club’s Every Light a Prayer for Peace observance.

The ceremony included prayers, songs, posting of the colors by the RHS JROTC, taps played by RHS’ Jeremy Willis, the peace poem read by Mrs. America Madeline Mitchell Gwin and a devotional thought from North Highlands church of Christ minister Trae Durden.

Students from Russellville City Schools serenade the crowd gathered to celebrate peace.

The ceremony was preceded by a mix-and-mingle reception in honor of veterans, hosted by the Cultura Garden Club and the Book Lovers Study Club.

“I would just like to thank the Garden Club for putting it on. We appreciate this,” said Probate Judge Barry Moore, a veteran of the War in Iraq. “It’s very nice that they have this.”

“It’s an honor, when people do stuff like this for us,” said Franklin County Commissioner Wyman Pounders, a Navy veteran.