Bethel Garden Club to Install Blue Star Memorial Downtown

The Bethel Garden Club is working to create a Blue Star Memorial on the grassy island where Greenwood Ave. and Diamond Ave. meets, according to the News Times.

The club is working to raise $1,600 to complete the project which will include an aluminum marker and a black plaque with a blue star mounted on a 7-foot pole. They hope to install the marker by Saturday, May 30 which is known as “Traditional Memorial Day.”

The blue star refers to the small banner with a blue star and a red border displayed in the window of homes where a family member is in active military service, a practice in the United States that began in 1917 and gained in popularity during World War II..

According to the National Garden Club, the Blue Star Memorial Program began in 1944 as a way to honor service men and women. “The program began with the planting of 8,000 Dogwood trees by the New Jersey Council of Garden Clubs in 1944 as a living memorial to veterans of World War II. In 1945, the National Council of State Garden Clubs adopted the program and began a Blue Star Highway system, which covers thousands of miles across the Continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. A large metal Blue Star Memorial Highway Marker was placed at appropriate locations along the way,” the website states.

For more information about how you can support this project, call the Bethel Garden Club/Karen DeLeon at (203) 798-8156 or by emailing kdeleon2@comcast.net.

Photo: National Garden Club

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