By Kathleen Knowles
Answers Your Questions!
Week 5
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: What is the cost per banner?
A: At this time we do not have an answer. We have only printed a small number of them which will travel throughout the county. The plan at this time is to offer the printing to any print shop in the county to submit a bid. We will then compile all bids and calculate a medium amount between the high and low bid. We will then take that medium number and go back only to the shops who submit a bid and ask if they will print a fixed number of banners at that amount. Everyone gets paid the same. We could easily have all the banners printed outside St. Clair County for less, but why? This is the county’s project.
Q: Once the banners are printed, where will they be displayed?
A: We are encouraging cities, townships, and villages to make the choice as to where the display would receive the most amount of visibility and best reflect that community’s sacrifice to anyone passing through.
Q: Who is behind the Banner Project?
A: The St. Clair County Department of Veterans Affairs is running lead on this project. The St. Clair County Veterans Council has been asked to research Gold Star Families in their own communities and to work with individual local government agencies about what this project entails.
Q: What are the qualifications for a banner?
A: Any St. Clair County resident who died while in service to their Country since WWI through current conflicts qualifies for a banner.
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).
