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Clear skies. Low 44F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph..
Clear skies. Low 44F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
Contributed photoFirst installation of the Catskill Hometown Heroes Banners in the Town of Catskill by Town Highway employees. The banner is for Sgt. Anthony Pavlak WWII.Contributed photoPictured from the left are Chad Zmyarch; Joy Andreassen, whose father is on banner;, Shawn Beers, Town Highway Superintendent; Austin McAvoy; and Ken Buel.
Contributed photoFirst installation of the Catskill Hometown Heroes Banners in the Town of Catskill by Town Highway employees. The banner is for Sgt. Anthony Pavlak WWII.Contributed photoPictured from the left are Chad Zmyarch; Joy Andreassen, whose father is on banner;, Shawn Beers, Town Highway Superintendent; Austin McAvoy; and Ken Buel.
CATSKILL — Banners honoring Catskill’s military heroes will begin lining roads and streets next spring with the launch of the Catskill Hometown Heroes Veterans Banner program.
The banners will be installed starting in mid-May 2023 around Armed Forces Day and removed around Veterans Day, said Tom Andreassen, who co-chairs the Catskill Patriotic Committee with his wife Joyce. The committee consists of 13 members including five veterans.
Current or past Catskill military heroes will be enshrined on banners that will include the names of the honorees, their photographs, branch of service and the military conflicts in which they served.
The banner program is the brainchild of Andreassen, commander of American Legion Honeyford Post 110.
“I spearheaded it two and a half years ago and then the pandemic hit and we shut it down,” he said Thursday. “Now we’ve picked it up again and we’ll be ready to go.”
The committee has installed its first officially approved banner in the town of Catskill. The banner depicts Sgt. Anthony Pavlak, brother of former Greene County Sheriff Joseph Pavlak.
“That banner was installed the other day in the town,” Andreassen said. “We installed it now so people can see what the banners look like and what information will be printed on them.”
Families or survivors of Catskill veterans can apply for the banners by picking up application forms at the Greene County Tourism Office near Catskill Exit 23 of the New York State Thruway on Route 23 in Catskill or visiting the town of Catskill website at www.townofcatskillny.gov
Hometown hero banner programs have been started by American Legion posts in Cairo and Hudson, and the time has arrived for the town and village of Catskill to honor its veterans the same way.
“The last Memorial Day parade in Catskill was in, what, 2014? Since then, Memorial Day ceremonies have dwindled down to the point where all we do is lay a wreath at the courthouse,” Andreassen said. “I think Catskill is losing its patriotism, so I wanted to kickstart it and get it back.”
Greene County Legislator Matthew Luvera, R-Catskill, oversees the committee, Andreassen said.
Applications for banners will be reviewed by the committee and, if approved, will be forwarded to Gettysburg Flag Works in East Greenbush. Gettysburg will send a reply back to the committee, which will send final approval to Gettysburg to move forward with the design and printing.
“We don’t know how many banners we’ll have,” Andreassen said. “We have 10 applications in right now and we’ll send them to Gettysburg Flag Works. We encourage people to get their applications now because it takes four to six weeks to make a banner.”
Applicants will have the option to change the form and content of their banners three times, Andreassen said. The banners are two and a half feet by 5 feet in size and cost $195.
The entire project is funded by people purchasing the banners, the American Legion and the Greene County Department of Veterans Services.
Each applicant must submit a photograph of the honored veteran. The deadline for submitting applications is Feb. 1, 2023.
Veterans from all U.S. military services are eligible to be depicted on the banners, Andreassen said. The only restriction is that they must be from the town or the village of Catskill.
The Catskill Patriotic Committee was formed partly in response to the long absence of a Memorial Day parade in Catskill, committee co-chair Joyce Andreassen said.
“Because of that we decided that once our banner program got off the ground and was successful, our next goal was to have a Memorial Day parade in Catskill in 2023,” she said.
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