Dignitaries, family, and friends will be gathering at ConVal High School in Peterborough on July 5, to honor Lance Cpl. Brandon Garabrant, a Marine who lost his life last month in Afghanistan. The memorial service begins at 10 a.m.



The Westboro Baptist Church will also be there staging a picket starting at 9:15 a.m. The controversial organization has made headlines across the country protesting at the deaths of fallen soldiers and other events that it has deemed evil and blasphemous. Others, however, have countered their protests by creating visual walls of signs and humans or even revving motorcycles so loud that the mourners can't hear the church protesters.

Organizers in New Hampshire have a different idea: They're going to sing over the protesters. Former State Rep. Jane Cormier, Robert Forsythe, and others will be holding the counter-event at the high school and will be bringing their vocal pipes to offer patriotic songs and hymns including "America the Beautiful," "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," and others, in an effort to drown out the protesters.

Forsythe, who is running for state representative in Boscawen, said the group is expecting between 50 to 60 people to be at the school to perform. Cormier, who is running for state Senate in Hooksett, has a booming, striking voice and sings and teaches opera. She is often heard leading others in song at various political events. Cormier stated that the songs would be used to drown out the negative and disrespectful message that the church was sharing with others.

"While people have the right of free speech, it is despicable that any group would want to subject the families of fallen soldiers to this kind of disrespectful display," she said. "These families have already suffered enough and should not have to endure the extreme actions and statements of groups like the Westboro Baptist Church during the time of their grief."

It was unknown, at post time, if there were other counter-events planned for the memorial service.