New Hometown Heroes banners up in town
Legion executive committee member Louis Stacey putting up one of the Hometown Heroes banners with the help of a Paul’s Communication bucket truck. Courtesy Ray Deer
The Royal Canadian Legion Mohawk Branch 219 have completed what it’s president Ray Deer is calling “phase two” of the Hometown Heroes banner project, with the last few of this remaining batch of 51 banners being installed along Old Malone Highway last Friday.
Fifteen of those banners were higher quality replacements of banners originally put up last year that did not survive the elements during wintertime, with the other 36 replacements for those that had been planned on being put up.
Deer said these banners were all paid for by the Original Tobacco Traders, who had decided to invest in more banners in town following the original 15 going up in 2023 for the Legion’s 70th anniversary.
He said that getting and putting up the banners is a big team effort by members of the Legion, including Peter “Pitt” Jacobs, who orders all the banners, as well as Gerald Marquis, Daniel Montour, Howard Rice, and Louis Stacey.
Stacey did most of the physical installations thanks to an assist by Paul’s Communications, who lent them a bucket truck and donated the gas to do the installation.
“You can’t put these banners up without having a vehicle that has a bucket,” said Deer.
Although the vast majority of the new banners were placed along Old Malone Highway towards the tunnel, some were placed close to the homes of older veterans who are still alive, including Jackie Leclaire, the last veteran of the Korean War still living in the community, and Teddy Canadian, a United States Army veteran of the Vietnam War.
Vietnam War veteran Teddy Canadian was one of a select few veterans in town to have had their Hometown Heroes banner installed right by their home, to his and his family’s delight. Courtesy Joy-Marie Canadian
“We had a few that we wanted to put up while they’re still here on Earth, before they pass away,” said Deer.
The Legion surprised Canadian at his home while they were installing his banner.
“The day that it was being raised up onto the pole, I saw the workers, and they kept peeking at our house. I had thought to myself ‘hmm, they are up to something’” said Joy-Marie Canadian, Teddy’s daughter.
When they were done, they asked Teddy to come outside, because they had something to show him.
“They were so happy, it was very emotional. When I got home and saw it, I was shocked in the best way possible,” said Joy-Marie.
“He was in tears that we would do something like that,” said Deer.
Joy-Marie said that her whole family is very proud of having Teddy be recognized in the community for his service.
“The acknowledgement of all of his sacrifices, hard work and determination are beyond well earned. As a family we are so proud of him and this banner means the world to us. For my father it means so much to him to have the recognition that he deserves,” she said.
The response across the community from people seeing their family members or even themselves acknowledged with a banner has been nothing short of overwhelming, Deer said.
“That’s what this whole project is about, and we’re going to continue it as long as we have the funding and we can still be able to do things,” said Deer.
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There are plans for at least 30 more in the near future, Deer said, including many more female veterans.
“It is a matriarch society, and we’ve had a lot of our women that had joined the service,” said Deer.
The Legion is planning on asking the Original Tobacco Traders for help once again. But for now, they can take some time and feel proud of having more of the community’s veterans recognized.
“We want to instill pride and let people, from the outside in particular, see and recognize all the different community members that joined the military and served in different conflicts to let them acknowledge our contributions to the protection of Turtle Island,” said Deer.
