Valley towns feature veteran pictures on street poles
You may have noticed banners lining main streets in some Valley communities with veteran's pictures on them.
Communities are proud of their veterans and they have found a new way to show it.
If you've visited Austintown's 9-11 Memorial Park, you've seen these banners lined up and down Raccoon road.
In Niles, they start lining the viaduct on route 46 coming into town.
The park director there said they got the idea from Cleveland. Right now, 133 Niles veterans can be seen on light poles. Relatives send a picture of their loved one to the city along with $120 fee to cover the banner and installation costs.
"They've done everything for this country. Our country is the way it is because of the veterans who have served in war. It's nice that we have both active veterans and deceased ones up there so we're honoring the ones still in military service too," said Niles park director, Mark Pallante.
Brookfield has them too but their historical commission wants to take it a step further in the future by offering a way for people to download each veteran's own story. Family members would write a short story of the veteran's history or military accomplishments...adding something more than just a name and a date.
"Lately people are using QR codes so I thought we could add them to each light post. I would love it for you to be able to walk around, scan the code if you had a smart phone and see the picture and the story," said Brookfield Historical Commission, chair, Shannon Devitz.
Many of the communities are going to leave all of the banners up through Veterans day in hopes that people will see them and recognize that freedom is not free.