Memorial Day in Animalia wasn't as big as other days, but it was good preparation for the IAC. Not to say that there was not a lot to do there, there was still plenty of fun.
True to his word, Daniel Richardson emptied his storage shed of all his war memorabilia. As it turned out, his family has had involvement in every major American conflict since the Mexican war. As a consequence, he had lots of rare war artifacts, not just limited to old weapons and uniforms. It was something to see a demonstration of both a civil war era rifle, a Spanish-American war Gatling gun, a 1896 KRAG carbine, and a WWII era carbide rifle, even though many uplifted Animalians didn't like the noise of gunfire or the smell of burned gunpowder.
There were also half-price double-dosed conversions for war veterans, especially those who had lost limbs, suffered addiction afterwards, or developed mental problems. What seemed to be an unexpected side effect was that many veterans became heartthrobs of whatever species they became.
Also, many war veterans, after conversion, shared many old war stories of their time in war. Many uplifted Animalians, especially those who were donors to war veterans, were glad about their heroism, yet were saddened by the atrocities the soldiers had witnessed. There were many who had decided to bond with the converted veterans to help ease some of their mental anguish.
One of the surprising things that happened was the appearance of several museum representatives who wanted to buy several of Daniel's war memorabilia, especially because some of Daniel's old spy gear from WWII was of great interest to the Spy Museum in Washington DC. Daniel was a hard bargainer, but he did end up seventh thousand dollars richer after negotiations.
One really clever thing that was done was to recreate accurate weapon replicas that fired paintballs instead of live ammunition, even though many of them, including WWI machine gun replicas, wouldn't be ready to be used until next year. Paintball battles actually were a great way to simulate conflicts without upsetting uplifted Animalians. Also, all you had to do after getting hit was toss the clothes in the wash, and they were good as new.
Yet another thing that was done was a display of war vehicles, such as military jeeps and tanks. Some college kids thought that they were very cool, and were allowed to enter the WWII era tanks, as long as they didn't damage the war relics.
All together, this was a good way to showcase "Freedom is not free" and the costs that many soldiers payed to keep it that way.