By Kathleen Knowles
Answers Your Questions!
Week 7
If you have been following Blue Water Healthy Living, you are familiar with the Blue Water Fallen Heroes Community Banner Project. The program was conceived to recognize and honor over 550 military service members from Saint Clair County killed in action from World War I to the current conflicts. These banners will include the service member’s picture, branch of service, their rank, the conflict they were involved in, and the city, town or village they resided. The banners will be displayed the week of Memorial Day and the week after in the cities and towns where the hero lived. Target date 2021.
Those of you who have not heard of the program or simply want to know more about it will now be provided with a forum in which to ask questions. We will be accepting your questions which will then be answered directly by those involved in the project.
Your Questions From Last Week:
Q: Who owns the Banners?
A: Produced and printed banners are the sole responsibility of the St. Clair County Department of Veterans Affairs including county-wide distribution and collection, yearly storage, and any repairs/replacements (based on funding availability). The banners do not belong to the individual cities, townships, or villages, nor do they belong to the individual Veterans Posts that reside within them.
Q: Why not?
A: This project was carefully designed to honor each and every sacrifice throughout the county, to reflect on the unity of each city and village with one another. To allow banner displays within one entity and not the others would not reflect on the project’s carefully crafted mission. The St. Clair County Fallen Heroes Banner Project is all about “US” and “WE”, not “I” or “Me”.
Q: Will these banners be displayed at any other time or event?
A: No. The mission is to bring honor and remembrance of each sacrifice only during those two weeks around Memorial Day. We are hoping there may be a singular banner display at various Public facilities with high traffic during the winter months to promote photo scan appointments. This is yet to be worked out.
Q: Will the photos of each sacrifice only be displayed in the city/township they resided in?
A: Every effort will be made to do just that.
Q: Is St. Clair County the first to have a project like this?
A: No, it is not. The cities of Lapeer, Traverse City, and Sault Ste Marie (among others) have similar projects. Many cities throughout the U.S. have similar projects as well. However, St. Clair County’s project is the only project of its kind in the United States that is county-wide and lead by a single committee.
Please help us locate photos of these many sacrifices. If you know of anyone killed in action in any of the wars from World War I to the current conflicts, please contact us at the hotline below so that we may honor their service and sacrifice.
Our hotline is (810) 985-2007 | ksknowles1@gmail.com
Also:
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us. Send it to the email address below and we will see that you get an answer. Check back to Blue Water Healthy Living for the answer to your question(s).
