Veteran groups partner to launch ‘Hometown Heroes’ banner program
By Brandi Makuski
Several local municipalities are partnering with veteran services organizations in Portage Co. to launch a banner program featuring local veterans.
The Hometown Heroes Banner Program serves as a living tribute for families to honor past and present members of the United States Armed Forces.
If all goes according to plan, the vinyl banners—each adorned with a soldier’s name, face, and branch of service—will be affixed to light poles in Stevens Point, Plover, and Whiting beginning next spring.
Barbara McCloy, who served three international deployments during her 23 years in the U.S. Navy, said the idea for installing the program locally came from a fellow member of American Legion Post 6, Jim Morris.
“He was saying he’d been seeing these banners in other communities around us and wondered why we didn’t have it,” McCloy said. “We’re so behind the times—we can’t have all these surrounding areas doing it and we don’t do it. So I said I would take it and run with it.”
Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza said the city plans to begin installing banners on Clark St. when the program launches in the spring. In Plover, Administrator Dan Ault said the village hasn’t yet decided where the first banners will be placed, but it will once the Bus. 51 project is formally completed in December.
McCloy said numerous veteran services organizations are working together to ensure that families of local veterans are aware of the program, and to find some way of helping local veterans who don’t have families.
The cost for each banner is $300, she said. The banners will be printed by Marshfild-based Heinzen Printing Inc., which also prints banners for other communities.
Banners will be displayed from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Banners are designed to last three seasons, but may only fly for one season, depending on the waiting list, McCloy said. Printed booklets featuring the location of each banner will be printed annually, and the family gets their veteran’s banner once it’s been retired.
“It doesn’t matter if they served during a war or served in the country; they still signed an oath. So this includes anybody who served,” she said.
Submissions and payments are due March 1, 2023. Families should send a high-resolution photo of their veteran, along with their name, last rank, any deployments or last billet assignment, and any citations.
Submission should be sent to [email protected]
More information on the program is available at hometownheroesbanners.com.