P. Michael Sweetser, Bruce Oksa, Gene G. Hoyt and Thomas M. Bender.
Eugene R. Leydecker, James Hilton Sr, William Cary Sr. and Louis Chianucci.
Harold B. Vrooman, Eilene Wilson Fisher, Fred L. Stilson and Sgt. Elbridge Smith.
Banners honoring these veterans and many others now line Main Street, Cobleskill, thanks to a project spearheaded by Mayor Linda Holmes.
And she hopes there will eventually be hundreds of banners in Cobleskill.
Village employees erected 28 banners Friday, just in time for Memorial Day, in an effort that started in November.
“I had seen this in other towns and thought it was a good way to honor veterans,” Mayor Holmes said.
So she went to work. Mayor Holmes contacted the mayor of Troy, whose city hangs similar banners, and found the cost was $150 for each one.
Mayor Holmes thought that was too much to charge veterans’ families, so she lowered the cost to $50 and found an anonymous donor who would pay the rest.
Cobleskill’s Fred L. Stilson Post of the American Legion signed on as a partner to help.
Each banner features a photo––most in sepia, some in color––the veteran’s name and dates of service.
The first 28 date from World War I through the present day.
“That’s my grandfather,” Mayor Holmes said as the banners were going up, pointing to Harold B. Vrooman, astride a horse in a World War I photo.
For the current banners and the ones to come, the veteran should have a connection to Cobleskill––lived here, relatives live here or the sponsor does.
“I have someone who works in Cobleskill and is sponsoring someone,” Mayor Holmes said.
“The program is to honor all veterans no matter where they lived.”
The banners are all in the center of downtown, two to a pole. As more sponsors apply, Mayor Holmes plans to hang them on poles from Wal-Mart to SUNY Cobleskill.
“Then we will start down the side streets,” Mayor Holmes said. “I envision hundreds of veterans being honored in this manner.”
Sponsors can contact Mayor Holmes for more information. The applications and payment run through the American Legion Post, and Mayor Holmes follows with the printers, proofs and the hanging of the banners.

* * *

Coverage of a many local Memorial Day events and ceremonies is in this week's paper edition of the Times-Journal. Pick up a copy.