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Park Of Honor Returns To Pittsfield Bigger Than Before

Jim Levulis
/
WAMC
Last year more than 500 flags filled Park Square in Pittsfield, Mass.

After a successful launch last year, hundreds of American flags will fly for one month in downtown Pittsfield in honor of area veterans.Pittsfield Kiwanis Club President Cheryl Tripp-Cleveland can’t wait for Saturday. That’s because in a matter of hours nearly 650 3-by-5-foot American flags will be placed in the ground at Park Square.

“People were coming to us after the initial year saying ‘Why don’t’ you do it for Memorial Day and the Fourth of July?’” she explained. “The reason we only do it when we do it is because of the veterans and Veterans’ Day. We want to keep it special.”

In 2014, the club sold 523 flags, raising enough for 12 $1,000 scholarships for children and grandchildren of Berkshire veterans. Recipients stretched from Williamstown to Sheffield. This time around the club is hoping to award 20 scholarships. An opening ceremony is being held at noon Saturday involving American Legion and Vietnam Veterans area members. As was the case last year, the POW/MIA table ceremony, which serves to honor the more than 138,000 service members missing in action or taken prisoner since World War I, will be carried out. Tyrone Belanger led the ceremony last November.

“The glass is inverted,” Belanger read. “They cannot toast with us at this time. The chair is empty. They are not here.”

Tripp-Cleveland, whose husband and brother served in the military, says the Kiwanis Club works closely with area veterans organizations to make the Park of Honor a reality.

“I think the one thing that I learned from being in contact with all of the veterans is none of them expected or even needed a ‘Thank you,’” Tripp-Cleveland said. “But seeing the response they were overwhelmed.”

According to the latest statistics from the Census Bureau, there are roughly 10,400 veterans in Berkshire County. A yellow ribbon is tied to each flag carrying the name of a local veteran or a message thanking all who served.

“They’re only business card size so we can’t put a whole lot on them, but people wrote so much about their dads, grandfathers and uncles,” she said. “I learned a lot about a lot of the people whose flags will be flying in the park…what they did, the Purple Hearts they earned. I think they must have done some family history so they learned a lot. So it isn’t just the flags, it’s a whole history that will be in the park.”

The flags will fly will through Veterans Day, November 11th, and beyond Thanksgiving at the request of area residents who want out-of-town visitors to witness the red, white and blue sea.

“There were people that said ‘I take the long way to work just so I can drive by the park in the morning,’” said Tripp-Cleveland. 

After a closing ceremony November 29th, people who bought the flags can take them home or they will be resold next year.

For more information or if you are interested in volunteering to raise the flags Saturday call the Kiwanis Club of Pittsfield at 413-242-6363 or by emailing pittsfieldkiwanis@gmail.com.

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
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