More banner days ahead for military veterans as Hometown Heroes program expands
Banners that are part of the Hometown Heroes program line the streets of Lindenhurst on Veterans Day in 2020, honoring service members with photos accompanied by their name, service branch, rank and years of service. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
A program to honor veterans that started in Lindenhurst is expanding throughout Babylon Town.
The Lindenhurst Kiwanis Club’s Hometown Heroes program was launched this year and allows people to purchase banners bearing a loved one’s official military photo, name, service branch, rank and years of service. The banners, available to residents and nonresidents, including those on active duty, are then hung on lampposts from Memorial Day to Veterans Day. A portion of the cost goes to one of three veterans’ organizations of the applicant’s choosing.
"We’re so excited that our program is now expanding," said Ralph Somma, who chairs the Hometown Heroes committee for the Kiwanis.
Somma said the Lindenhurst program has honored 151 military members and raised more than $3,200 for veterans groups.
Versions of the program are on display in many areas upstate and in some Long Island villages. North Babylon resident Jeanine Walther, whose son is in the Navy, saw the banners while traveling and she and fellow Navy mom Carolyn Mormino began a campaign two years ago to try and get a program in the town but faced hurdles.
"I had kind of given up on the project, thinking it wouldn’t come to fruition," Walther said.
The women approached town officials, but by law the town cannot process the banner fees, so officials searched for a partner organization, said Viscel Moore, director of the town’s beautification program. Recently the Lindenhurst Kiwanis offered to take on the work. Town DPW workers will hang the banners, Moore said.
"It just made perfect sense to partner with them rather than try to reinvent the wheel," she said.
Babylon has 600 to 800 decorative lampposts in the town, but officials can also ask utilities for permission to use their poles, Moore added.
Long Island is home to more than 115,000 veterans, according to the U.S. Census. More than 8,000 homes in Babylon Town are receiving the veteran tax deduction, said town spokesman Dan Schaefer.
"It’s amazing, I just can’t believe this is finally happening," Mormino said.
Walther said even if her son wasn’t in the military, the cause would be important to her.
"The people who made this such a fantastic country, they need to be honored all the time, and I think this is a beautiful way to do it," she said.
The town will begin accepting applications in January. Sign up for updates on the program at https://www.lindenhurstkiwanis.org/HometownHeroes
Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.
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