More than simply a day off work, Memorial Day is a time of remembrance. For many this means paying tribute for fallen service members or honoring those who returned. Here's a look at some events in and around Traverse City to commemorate Memorial Day:

Reining Liberty Ranch will hold a memorial celebration from 1-4pm featuring a 2pm memorial ceremony and an honor guard comprised of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2780 members. The family-friendly event will also include live music, refreshments from Moomers, and tours of the grounds, which are not generally open to the public.

This will be the second year the ranch has hosted a Memorial Day event. Rebecca Bigelow who, with her Navy veteran husband Dennis, owns the facility, says the event last year saw more than 500 visitors.

“It’s an important day for us,” Bigelow says. “It needs to be memorable.” She explains while honoring fallen service members is important, it should not come at the cost of neglecting the living. ‘Never forget the continual price [veterans] are paying.”

For many who survive combat, she says “the price that they paid in many ways begins when they come home.”

Veterans for Peace local chapter President Tim Keenan agrees.

“We spend too much time just taking time off work and not enough time to reflect,” says Keenan. “Not just those that have died, but those who are home and still suffering.”

Veterans for Peace will be hosting their own ceremony at the Open Space at noon. They plan to read the more than 260 names of Michigan service members killed during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Taps will also be played.

Army veteran John Lefler says the day is about “all these many thousands of people who  have given their lives so we can have a free country. They all deserve that respect shown to them.”

Lefler is also president of the Grand Traverse Veterans Coalition, which will host a 10am ceremony at Veterans Park, near the Grand Traverse Commons on Eleventh Street. An honor guard will oversee a flag raising and lowering ceremony.

The Village of Northport will also be holding a ceremony at the Leelanau Cemetery at 10:30am, featuring an honor guard from the local Boy Scout troop, the Northport choir and other community entertainment.

“It’s all about the guys who gave everything,” says Gulf War Marine Veteran Cliff Denton. Denton said Northport tries to have veterans from every major U.S. conflict represented every year at their ceremony.

VFW post 6333 in Kaleva will also host a community memorial ceremony at 11am. The Elk Rapids Amvets Memorial Day Parade also begins at 11am.