Our veterans are the pride of Beckley and the city is again honoring the hometown heroes with banners of their own.
Featuring veterans from all branches and active-duty military banners displayed throughout downtown.
“We like to celebrate veterans in this community a lot,” said Beckley events director Jill Moorefield. “We’ve done 94 in the past… and we will take applications in the month of February, place the order in early March. They’ll get a proof, then we’ll get it made and hang ’em sometime in April.”
The banners stay up through Veteran’s Day in November. To make room for Christmas decorations, they’re stored in winter. That way the city gets several years out of them.
“Anybody that’s interested can either pick up an application here at city hall or the mayor’s office or go online to https://beckley.org and you can fill everything out there,” Moorefield said, adding that you can also pay online and send your photo in.
She says they have to extend the program to include more roads this year. They started out doing Courthouse Square and Shoemaker Square.
“Done some on Prince and Main and last year we had to go on Leslie C. Gates place, and Neville and Heber area,” said the Beckley events director. “So I expect we’ll probably go down McCreery Street this year.”
The banners mean so much to so many people.
“Families really take a lot of pride in that,” Moorefield said. “It’s really cool to drive down and see your family member’s photo in your hometown.”
With veterans in her own family, like her Uncle John — this is personal for Jill.
“I know how it feels to have your family member’s photo up in town and to honor all of our veterans,” said Moorefield. “Looking forward to putting it back up and adding a few more to it this year.”
