ANACORTES — When it comes to veterans, Kevin Lee would like people to remember the same words that we speak to store clerks, drivers who let us merge into traffic or friends with a compliment.

Those words are: “Thank you.”

Lee, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5056 in Sedro-Woolley, spoke to about 60 people Tuesday at a Veterans Day ceremony at Causland Memorial Park.

It was one of many events either aimed at or honoring veterans occurring from Saturday through Tuesday in Skagit and Island counties. Activities included parades, pancake breakfasts, memorial ceremonies and one workshop aimed at addressing the mental health issues of some Iraq and Afghanistan war vets.

At Causland park, the ceremony was held in the southeastern section of the park, the section dedicated to war veterans from Anacortes. Members of the VFW, American Legion and Boy Scouts gathered there to honor veterans. Scouts read the 42 names of Anacortes residents who were killed in Korea, Vietnam and the two World Wars, and fellow veterans placed a wreath in front of a stone memorial that lists those who died during times of war.

“To some people, it is history,” said Keith LaRue, past commander of the VFW Post 5056. “To those who were there, it’s current events.”

Lee and John Tuner, commander of the American Legion Post 13 in Anacortes, placed the wreath, and then Boy Scout James LaFave, a member of Troop 84, played taps on a trumpet.

“We owe them a debt that cannot be repaid,” Lee said.

Veterans are in all walks of life, said Major Jerold Fortney of the Salvation Army. “They are the fabric of society,” he said.

In his speech, Lee suggested that employers looking for prospective employees should give a veteran’s military experience additional consideration. And when American Legion members offer red paper poppies for sale to benefit veterans, people should remember Korean War veterans in a hospital beds.

“Help the busy mother of two with her yard work while her husband is off fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan,” Lee said.

LaRue said that freedom is not free, and the price paid may not be death or a wound, but battling a mental illness.

“There are veterans who have seen so much death, they’ll never be the same,” LaRue said.

• Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or .