BEREA, Ohio -- Thanks to the Berea Garden Club and the Bud ‘N Bloom Garden Club, a Blue Star Memorial Marker on the Triangle now honors military veterans.
The marker was dedicated in a special ceremony attended by officials of the Garden Club of Ohio and the Veterans Outreach Office. The colors were posted by American Legion Post 91 Auxiliary. Emcee was Susie Welker, historian for the Berea Garden Club.
Chaplain Willie Springer of the Veterans Outreach Office gave the invocation and closing prayer. Taps was sounded by members of the Berea-Midpark High School band.
Mayor Cyril Kleem accepted the marker on behalf of the city. The mayor said the Triangle is a most appropriate location for the Blue Star marker. The Triangle is also the site of a memorial plaque to 2nd Lt. Albert Baesel, after whom American Legion Post 91 is named.
Baesel posthumously received the Medal of Honor during World War I for trying to rescue a wounded comrade on a battlefield in France.
The Triangle also is home to monuments honoring local members of the Grand Army of the Republic, which fought in the Civil War, and to local military from World Wars I & II, Korea and Vietnam.
The mayor said the Blue Star marker “is the cherry on top of the sundae. Every day is Veterans Day in Berea.”
The Blue Star program began in 1945 to honor men and women serving in the Armed Forces during World War II. It is a project of the National Garden Clubs Inc.
Mary Lou Smith, president of the Ohio Garden Club, said the marker “pays tribute to men and women who have served our country so we can be here in freedom. May we always be proud to be Americans.”
The marker was installed by the Berea Service Department, with the base decorated with plantings of black-eyed Susans, impatiens and mandevilla.