Garth Zwicker figures he may have asked four times now for the town of Sackville, and now the municipality of Tantramar, to up the quota of veterans banners they will put up on the municipality’s light poles every fall. And Zwicker was back before council on Tuesday night to deliver an update on the community project, and to ask for one more extension to accommodate a few more banners in the municipality.
There are now 229 veterans banners in total: 173 in Sackville, 50 in Dorchester, and 6 in Fort Folly. With requests for at least 15 more between Sackville and Dorchester, Zwicker asked council on Tuesday to consider approving 10 more in each community.
Zwicker also came to report on further developments with the banner project, including a future publication which will feature images and stories from the banner project.
“I’m in the process right now of gathering all the permissions, said Zwicker. “The excitement from the families… the respect and the love is just overwhelming sometimes.”
Zwicker says he is working with Dr. Logan Atkinson of the Tantramar Heritage Trust on the project, which will also include some local history. “We just don’t want to make it an encyclopedia, but a nice, readable book,” said Zwicker.
In addition to a book, Zwicker and his partner Mike Gillespie (who spearheads the Dorchester banner initiative) are pitching a new feature for next year’s veterans month: an online map.
Zwicker says that every year he gets calls asking about the locations of particular banners, but doesn’t always have the information. “This year, there was a whole street that people didn’t know about full of banners,” said Zwicker.
And so he’s planning an online map to help families locate their banners. Zwicker told council he’d appreciate municipal support, but was also willing to do the legwork for a ‘low tech’ map solution, which could be as simple as a list of addresses, such as one provided by the Legion in New Hamburg, Ontario, to complement their veteran banner program.
Councillor Allison Butcher spoke up on Tuesday to share her family’s connection with the banner program. Butcher has six relatives featured on banners, and says her family chat blows up each year when they go up. personal experience with Sackville’s banner program:
“We all drive around and we try and figure out where everybody is,” said Butcher, “and for us, that’s part of the fun of it, and it gives us an opportunity to see the others too.”
Zwicker told council he feels the program has great potential to showcase the communities of Tantramar, and encourage municipal staff to embrace the program and promote it each year.
“This is just a labor of love to me, but I didn’t realize that it would have the repercussions for the town that it does,” said Zwicker. “Let’s work together here… I don’t think it’s a project that weighs the town down. I think it’s a project that could bring the town up.”
CHMA reached out to Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne to find out who will make the decision regarding the veterans banner count for 2025. Borne responded to say that staff would likely be discussing Zwicker’s request internally after the holidays, and would include an update in a council report in the New Year. There could be “changes, additions or adjustments” says Borne, that would need to go back to council for a decision.
