Veterans across America receive recognition on Memorial Day. On Memorial Day this year Herkimer County residents will “Remember Our Fallen Stars.”
The Herkimer Lions Club and the Mohawk’s Crowley-Barnum American Legion Post No. 25 will be unveiling the Fallen Stars Tribute on Memorial Day. The tribute will consist of 201 white stars arranged on a blue background. The stars will feature the names, ranks and hometowns of the service men and women from around the state who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The symbol of each branch of service and appropriate words of tribute will also be displayed.
The mural will be updated every six months until the completion of each conflict. The tribute’s home will be at the Mohawk American Legion Post and it will be available upon request for display at service and civic organizations, schools, municipal buildings and others.
“This is what we’re all about — the veterans,” Post No. 25 Commander Daniel Ferguson said. “Both living and dead and honoring those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.”
“The Lions Club is proud to be spearheading this effort and we urge other veterans groups or civic organizations to get involved,” Ray Lenarcic, special projects chairman of the Lions Club, said.
“This is a way to recognize that the war is going on now and it is giving us a very real way to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice,” Herkimer County Legislator Helen Rose said.
The unveiling of the mural will be on Memorial Day, May 26 at 12:30 p.m. at Herkimer County Community College’s Veterans Memorial Park, which honors all of the veterans in Herkimer County.
HCCC Director of Development Vince Casale says the memorial park is a great way to remember those who have served.
“We have a place to forever remember all of those who served from Herkimer County,” Casale said. “This will serve as a memorial to all of our heroes.”
In conjunction with the fallen stars, Lenarcic is asking schools, organizations, businesses, churches, individuals and anyone else to remember a fallen star by coming up with a proposal for a project that would improve the quality of life in their community, such as a food drive or a roadside cleanup. They are asked to send the proposal to the Herkimer Lions Club, P.O. Box 171, Herkimer, NY 13350. If the project is approved, the individual submitting the proposal will be sent a framed star with the name of one of the Fallen Stars on it. The project will be completed in his or her memory. Lenarcic said the goal is to have 201 projects done, one for each of the Fallen Stars on the mural. This will run through Veteran’s Day, Lenarcic said. For more information, call 866-7765.
The Herkimer Lions Club has a tradition of organizing Memorial and Veterans Day projects designed to honor the veterans by doing something positive in their memories. This year, there is a two-part Memorial Day initiative.
Prior Herkimer Lions Club Veteran’s Projects have included: two phone card drives generating over 400,000 minutes for wounded soldiers at Walter Reed and Brook Army Hospitals; Purple Heart Petition Drive with over 1,000 signatures that demanded better treatment at VA hospitals for all veterans; DAV Transportation services to Syracuse and Rome publicity campaign; and Veterans Day 2007 concert at HCCC honoring World War II veterans.
Part two will be a fund drive in memory of the Fallen Stars to be divided between two veterans’ causes.
The first is Veterans Expo 2008, tentatively scheduled for November. Expo 2007 brought together many specialists and professionals in the fields of mental health, employment, education, benefits, and more who provided important information to veterans and their families. They were also able to hear and meet with experts on the topics of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury — the war’s two signature wounds. Everyone attending received a copy of the Mohawk Valley Red Cross Chaper’s pamphlet, Resources and Services for Veterans and Their Families, which has received some national attention and acclaim. Lenarcic says that Veterans Expo 2008 will be a continuation of this.
The second cause concerns two Marines named on the Fallen Stars mural. On Aug. 16, 2006, 30-year-old Captain John McKenna, a Brooklynite and former state trooper on his third tour of combat, was leading a patrol in the perennial hotspot of Fallujah. His point man was 28-year-old Lance Corporal Michael Glover, a Queens native. While crossing an exposed intersection, Glover was taken down by a sniper and mortally wounded. McKenna ran to Glover’s aid and the sniper shot him dead as he tried to pull Glover to cover.
The families of both of these Marines established the Captain John McKenna — Lance Corporal Michael Glover Foundation. Part of the donations received will go to this fund and ensure that wounded Marines get the treatment their sacrifices to this country demands.
To make a donation to the Lions Club Memorial Day projects checks can be made payable to: Herkimer Lions Club, P.O. Box 171, Herkimer, NY 13350 or American Legion Post No. 25, 43 W. Main St., Mohawk, NY 13407.
Herkimer, N.Y. —
