By Kathleen Knowles
Answers Your Questions!
Week 4
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, their 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 for 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 Question From Last Week:
Q: Will it be possible to add banners after they are displayed, or will no more be accepted?
A: There is no ending date for this project. Once the banners go up for Memorial Day, our hope is that it will stimulate more people to look in those long-forgotten shoeboxes full of old photos they inherited from a deceased family member
Q: Would nurses killed while serving qualify for a banner?
A: As of this date, we have two women who lost their lives while in service to their country. We continue to look for their photos.
Q: Will the families ever get to keep the banners?
A: The families will not have possession of any banners. The banners are the sole property and responsibility of the St Clair County Dept of Veterans Affairs. One of the items the project advisers are looking at is the possibility of a miniature banner (8 1/2 X 10) suitable for framing that might be available to the families. This item has yet to be decided upon. The priority is getting photos and printing the banners.
Q: Will the banners be able to handle inclimate weather?
A: A requirement for all banners is to be 18 mil vinyl, double-sided printing, triple sewed (no dielectric /heated] seams top and bottom and grommets at all four corners. They will only be displayed for two weeks out of the year, minimizing climate abuse.
Q: How can people find out if any of their relatives served and were killed in a war?
A: There are 559 names on the Pine Grove Park War Memorial in Port Huron. If you know the name, look for it on the monument. If you find that name, contact our hotline to see if we already have a photo.
Your questions are most appreciated. This project has been strategically designed to minimize politics, community competition, turf, divisiveness, and one-upmanship. It is all about ‘US’ & ‘We’, not ‘I’ or ‘Me’.
Please help us locate photos of these many sacrifices.
Our hotline is (810) 985-2007
Do you have a question? 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.
