It started as a way for a group of people to continue to work together after graduating from the Leadership Wayne. It has since grown to something which not only reaches out to community members, but touches the lives of everyone connected to it, from the people it helps to the volunteers who put it together.
The Tour of Honor Committee will complete its final project this year, when the volunteers bring the Vietnam Traveling Tribute to Hawley’s Bingham Park for four days shortly after Memorial Day. The Committee is made up of Leadership Wayne graduates who wanted to give more back to the community. Committee Member Debbie Gillette of Waymart said the project became a life changing experience.
As part of their graduation requirement, all the class members in 2006, had to join a nonprofit organization and work to earn a spot on its board of directors, Gillette explained. Leadership Wayne is a program sponsored by all three Chambers of Commerce to help develop leadership skills and the community leaders of tomorrow.
Nine of the 2006 graduates, decided they wanted to do more for the community and began the task of sending World War II veterans from Wayne County to Washington, DC to visit the World War II Memorial.
Gillette, speaking at the Hawley-Lake Wallenpaupack Chamber of Commerce dinner, explained some people thought it was impossible since they needed $55,000 to send a plane load of veterans and a caretaker for each veteran to Washington for a trip most would not have been able to take without the group’s help.
The Committee raised $72,000, with the help of many different groups including every school in Wayne and some in Pike. More then enough to pay for all the expenses.
Gillette noted it wasn’t easy. Tour of Honor had to convince officials at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre International Airport that the runways could handle a 737, something US Airways assured Committee members was possible.. Volunteers had to ensure the veterans and their escorts were gathered on buses and moved to the airport by 6 am, shuttled from around Washington and returned safely home.
Gillette noted all the hard work and months of planning and fund raising paid off, when the flight landed and the veterans disembarked.
Gillette said US Airways had announced to all the passengers waiting at its gates that the flight was arriving. A Waymart native who worked at the Pentagon had arranged for men and women from all the armed services to be at the gate in uniform to greet them as well.
The cheers went up and the applause filled the gate area as the servicemen and women saluted the Wayne veterans and the passengers from other flights gathered around and applauded the veterans that got off the plane.
“They finally got the welcome home they deserve,” she said.
Gillette, who still gets choked up when she tells the story, said the greeting was life changing for her and thought it was for the other volunteers as well.
With the money they had left over, the Tour of Honor held a ceremony for Korean War veterans in Honesdale last fall.
Gillette said with the last of their funds — and a little more they are raising now — the Committee decided to bring the Wall (The Vietnam War Memorial) home to veterans of that war.
The Committee looked at several places in Wayne County and finally decided on Bingham Park in Hawley Borough. The former canal boat basin presents a good backdrop for the Vietnam Veterans Traveling Tribute, the largest of four traveling copies of the memorial which includes the names of the servicemen and women killed as a result of combat during the Vietnam War.
VVTT is 80 percent the size of the Wall in Washington and includes all the names from every state. A copy of every panel will be on display 24 hours a day for four days. The Wall itself will be set up in the lower portion of the park. It will run parallel with Hudson Street.
But Gillette said the VVTT comes with Memorials for all veterans and will include the 9/11 Memorial to honor the attacks on New York City and Washington, events that hit home for many residents in Pike and Wayne counties.
The VVTT Wall will leave Dallas, TX, in the afternoon of Monday, May 25 and will arrive in Hawley Wednesday, May 27. It will be escorted into town and a brief ceremony is planned to greet it. Early, Thursday morning, May 28, volunteers will set up the Wall and the other memorials.
At 12 noon, the Tour of Honor Committee will hold opening ceremonies and a wreath laying ceremony.
Gillette said the Wall is expected to bring 30,000 to 40,000 people to the area during its four day visit as it does in other rural areas. She noted VVTT says veterans and their families and other visitors come from two to three hours away to visit the Memorial at similar locations.
Besides the Memorials, Tour of Honor has set up ceremonies each day to honor veterans and other groups. The services begin with a ceremony for Fireman and Police Officers. Friday is school day, when all the schools in the area are encouraged to sends students to the Memorials. Vietnam Veterans will be held on Saturday.
Volunteers will be on hand to help veterans and their families find names important to them on the Wall.
The Veterans Administration will be bring a mobile unit to offer counseling for veterans.
Music is planned each evening with school bands and chorus groups as well as local bands providing music from the Bandstand in the Park.
The Stourbridge Lion Train Excursion will also be making three trips to Hawley from Honesdale on Saturday and Woodloch Pines is planning to run shuttle buses for its visitors to come to Hawley to see it.
Gillette noted the work to bring the Wall to Hawley is a cooperative effort, with many groups and organizations helping out. Downtown Hawley Partnership is helping with many of the logistics including developing a parking plan and arranging for shuttle buses to move visitors to Bingham Park from the various parking areas. DHP is also helping coordinate accommodations for the VVTT volunteers who travel with the Wall.
Hawley Borough, its Police Department, Fire Department, Ambulance Corps as well as Emergency Services volunteers met with the Committee to discuss an Emergency Plan which Hawley Council Member and Emergency Management Coordinator Kevin Hawk developed for the Wall’s visit.
During a meeting between the EM services, Borough officials and Committee members, the groups discussed what the EM services needed from the Committee members and what services each agency needed to provide. Park Place will be closed during The Wall’s visit. It will be used to unload busses and for emergency access to the park
Security will be provided by volunteers from several groups. Since the Memorial is open 24 hours a day security will be on hand from the time it arrives Wednesday until its leaves the following Monday.
Wayne County will allow the Tour of Honor to use the Robert Drake Community Senior Center as a headquarters for its volunteers which will include not only security each night, but an army of other volunteers that are needed to help run the event. Volunteers will help greet visitors, hand out information fliers and help veterans who need a hand getting around the site.
Volunteers are still needed. Gillette said no one will be turned away especially since so much needs to be done day during the Wall’s visit.
Some donations are still needed as well. Tour of Honor had the money to pay for the Wall’s visit, $9,000 which covers a portion of the costs to truck the memorial and maintain it. But Gillette noted other items such as tent rental and other items needed for the event still need to be paid for. Donations she said can be made out to Tour of Honor and dropped off at any Honesdale National Bank location marked Attn: Tammy Hardler.
When speaking to the Chamber, Gillette challenged the business owners attending the dinner to thank each and every veteran they meet in their business.. She said all that is needed is a simple thank you.
She ended by quoting Will Rogers, who said, “We can’t all be heroes. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they go bye.”
