Honorific banners to be replaced
Some of the Hometown Heroes banners have started to become damaged due to the elements, prompting the replacement efforts. Olivier Cadotte The Eastern Door
While driving around town, it’s hard not to notice the Hometown Heroes banners, there to honour veterans from the community.
Unfortunately, it is also hard not to notice that some of them are damaged – cracked, torn, or even unrecognizable.
Legion president Ray Deer said that the original banners put up for the 70th anniversary of the Legion will not need to be replaced, but the 15 that were placed in the fall - and dozens more that were planned to be put up by the summer - will be.
He said that the original banners had been produced in the United States, but the Legion went with a Chateauguay-based printing company for the new batch due to costs and distance concerns.
“It turned out really bad, because the banners were really inferior,” said Deer. “We put them up in November, and some of them by December, January, they were totally finished.”
Deer said the company in Chateauguay has been understanding of the situation and will be taking care of making new banners at no extra cost to the Legion.
For the Legion, the banners initiative is an important one, showcasing the veterans and military tradition of Kahnawake.
“The whole idea is that it’s part of a healing process for the families, to commemorate all of their loved ones that are passed and to incite pride in the rest of the families that their family members are still living,” said Peter “Pitt” Jacobs, now the facilities manager of the Legion after having served on the executive for many years.
“It’s an honour, when you’re riding through town and you see your father, your grandfather, your cousin, your uncle put in a hero’s position,” said Deer.
Another challenge faces the Legion regarding the Hometown Heroes banners: actually putting them up.
The 15 new banners had been placed by First Nations Fiber, but they did not have time to place all of them and lack the time to put up the remade ones, according to Deer.
There are 52 new banners to put up, and the ultimate goal of the Legion is for every veteran to be acknowledged with a banner, meaning over 300 will have to be placed.
“A lot of them have passed away, from our World War II generation, and our Korean veterans. We only have one left, and so we’re trying to get those banners up, before we start losing all of our Vietnam veterans,” said Deer.
Deer said the Legion members cannot do it on their own, due to a lack of equipment, knowledge of installation methods, and in some cases, physical ability.
“We are asking anyone out there that does have a cherry picker that could assist us, and we would pay for something. We just can’t pay an enormous amount, we’re still struggling from the pandemic time,” said Deer.
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“We’re too old to be climbing on anything, because when we fall, we don’t get back up.”
Deer said the Legion is open to all the help it can get to put up the banners, whether it be from a company or a private person who has the proper equipment.
