BANGOR – You’re a war veteran living in Maine and you’ve been thinking about joining the Memorial Day Parade, but you wish you’d signed up for one of those Maine-made maple walking sticks the Cole Land Transportation Museum has been giving out.

There’s still time.

They’ve still got walking sticks for World War II veterans and Korean War veterans and Vietnam veterans who live in Maine and are going to march or ride in Monday’s parade.

Between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. today through Sunday, stop by the museum at 405 Perry Road, show them some identification and tell them you want to be in that parade.

By the end of Sunday, said Galen Cole, museum founder, the Cole Museum expects to have distributed a total of 4,000 walking sticks made by Peavey Manufacturing to Maine veterans since the program began more than a decade ago.

Last year saw 600 Vietnam veterans turn out for the Memorial Day parade when the museum distributed special walking sticks to those veterans for the first time.

The walking stick program continues to be rewarding for museum volunteers, who are hoping this Memorial Day that Maine veterans will participate in the Bangor parade and become “One in a Thousand.”

Cole believes that 1,000 or more could end up taking part, so the museum has produced special reflective stickers for the walking sticks: “One in a Thousand 2008 Honoring Your Service Memorial Day – July 4th – Veterans Day Cole Museum – Bangor, Maine.”

Veterans may obtain one of the red, white and blue “One in a Thousand” stickers for their walking sticks before the parade, 9 a.m.-10:25 a.m. Monday, May 26, at tables under the canopy of the TD Banknorth building on Exchange Street.

World War II veterans may choose a different sticker if they like – the annual sticker that is given out each year on Memorial Day.

The parade itself begins at 10:30 a.m. and will proceed up Main Street and finish at Davenport Park at the corner of Main and Cedar streets.

Veterans unable to march the half-mile parade route may ride one of the buses provided by First Student. The buses also will carry veterans after the parade back to the parking areas at Penobscot Plaza and the downtown parking garage.

Cole believes the goal of having 1,000 veterans take part is doable. He wrote in a recent letter to veterans who already have received walking sticks, “With your participation, it could be the largest parade with U.S. military veterans in Maine history!”

Walking sticks themselves will not be available downtown before the parade, Cole said, but Maine veterans who do not have one may come to the museum, where remaining walking sticks will be distributed after the band concert in the afternoon.

Lunch will be available 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at the museum, 405 Perry Road. Hampden Academy Band parents will sell hot dogs, hamburgers, soda and whoopie pies. The first 200 Maine veterans with walking sticks who get in the food line will receive a coupon for a free hamburger.

The museum’s Memorial Day commemoration will begin at 1 p.m. with welcome from Don Colson, presentation of the colors by the Maine Air National Guard, the national anthem by the Hampden Academy Jazz Band, and an invocation by Lt. Col. Richard Dickinson.

Wreaths will be placed by Charles Titcomb, World War II Memorial; Ralph Dunbar, Purple Heart Monument; and Clair Bemis, Vietnam Memorial.

Gary Cole, chairman of the Cole Museum board of trustees, will introduce the winners in the museum’s essay contest: “What Freedom Means to Me after Interviewing a Veteran.”

Winners are: Hannah Arseneau, Acadia Christian School, grades six to eight, $500 savings bond; and John Wilson, Belfast Area High School, grades nine to 12, $500 savings bond.

Galen Cole, museum founder and World War II veteran, will introduce a special guest, Tom Stryker, the pilot who flew Huey Helicopter No. 65-09915, which is a permanent part of the Vietnam Memorial at the museum.

The afternoon will conclude with a USO-type show by the Hampden Academy Jazz Band. Those attending are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.

After the show, there will be free admission to the Cole Land Transportation Museum for all.

The museum continues to sell “Quiet Courage,” the book by Don Colson with profiles on more than 80 Maine veterans. The cost is $20. During May, any veteran purchasing the book at the museum will receive a free veteran’s cap.

Weekdays through June 19, and again when school starts in the fall, the museum will continue its Ambassadors of Freedom Program, with students interviewing war veterans.

More than 13,000 students have participated in the program over the years. Veterans from the Vietnam War and Desert Storm are needed to be interviewed by the students. For information, call the museum at 990-3600.