Banners honouring veterans, interspersed with banners featuring poppies of remembrance, have now been hung on the light standards along Holland Street in Bradford.
This is the third year for the Veterans Banner program, launched by the Bradford Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. This year, 47 of the sturdy vinyl banners are being displayed on the main street in time for Remembrance Day.
“It’s going to be good,” said Legionnaire Mike Giovanetti, past president at the Legion, who helped spearhead the program.
Six new banners will be going up, “one of them being (MP) Scot Davidson’s grandfather,” said Giovanetti.
The banners were hung by Town of BWG public works staff, using a bucket truck to take down the existing decorative banners and replace them with the images of veterans, from those who served in World Wars One and Two, the Korean conflict, and Afghanistan, to those who have served in peacetime.
Families can purchase the banners to honour loved ones and family members. Legionnaire and Veteran Services Officer George Neilson has three banners up this year – “My dad, mine, and my father-in-law, John Neal.”
Each costs $150, and can be ordered through the Legion, at 905-775-5025, at any time. The application forms are available at the Legion hall, behind the bar, at 115 Back St.
Both Giovanetti and Neilson were out on Tuesday morning, starting at 7:30 a.m., helping town staff put up the banners along Holland.
“We’re going to try to get them all up in the street. If not, we’ll hang them up in the Legion hall,” said Giovanetti.
They'll be on display there, after the season of Remembrance – in a monthly rotation, to ensure that all are displayed some time during the year. “It’s what the Legion is all about,” said Giovanetti.
The annual Poppy Campaign, raising funds for veterans at home and in care, begins on Oct. 25. Watch for the poppy boxes in local retail outlets, and volunteers accepting donations and handing out cloth poppies around town.
This year, the annual Veteran’s Dinner will be taking place on Saturday, Nov. 2 at the Bradford Legion, with cocktails from 6 to 7 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $22 per person, available at the Legion.
The annual Remembrance Parade in Bradford takes place on Sunday, Nov. 10, with form-up at 12:30 p.m. at the Holland Marsh Square Plaza, proceeding down Holland to the Bradford Legion where a wreath-laying ceremony will take place at the Cenotaph, at 1 p.m. There will also be a Remembrance Day service and wreath-laying, Nov. 11 at the Cenotaph, at 10:30 a.m.
