MANITOULIN – All of the Island municipalities and First Nations that fall within the Branch #177 catchment area will have received letters in recent weeks from Linda Bowerman, requesting municipal and band support for the placement of remembrance banners.
Ms. Bowerman pointed to the Town of Espanola and its second year of hanging remembrance banners from municipal lampposts—banners that include the names of local veterans who have since passed on.
“It would be so nice to have them hanging all over the east and central areas of Manitoulin as well as Whitefish River First Nation,” Ms. Bowerman told The Expositor.
Ms. Bowerman said if she gets enough buy-in from municipalities and First Nations, she will be seeking residents from each of the communities to sit on a committee that would help see the project through.
The approximate cost of each banner would be $175. “The idea is to have families buy their own or reach out to businesses to sponsor them,” Ms. Bowerman explained.
While she admits that this is still very early in the planning stages, Ms. Bowerman said she envisions the banners hanging from lampposts from just after Thanksgiving until the end of November. She hopes that the respective public works departments will take care of putting them up and taking them down. They would be re-used year after year. Her goal is to have them ready to go for next fall.
Ms. Bowerman is also hopeful that the banners could have a spinoff effect in gaining Branch #177 new members. In conversation with Espanola Legion president Gary MacPherson, the Espanola banner campaign saw eight new Legion members come forward.
Ms. Bowerman said the banners are not specific to any one war. “They can be for any veteran,” she said.
For more information, contact Ms. Bowerman at 705-368-2465.
