Mayor Sal Panto Jr. is joined, from left, by Suzanne Fredericks, Davida Moore-Curry and Charles W. Dickerson in announcing Friday, May 27, 2022, in Easton City Hall a Hometown Hero banner program sponsored by the NAACP Easton Branch #2260 to honor veterans from the Easton and Wilson area school districts.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com

On the eve of Memorial Day weekend, Easton and the NAACP Easton Branch #2260 on Friday announced Hometown Hero banners will be displayed to honor area veterans.

Davida Moore-Curry, chairwoman of the branch’s Armed Forces & Veterans committee and a U.S. Army veteran herself, is leading the recognition effort.

“We’re going to try to honor all veterans in the Easton area throughout the next few years with their photo being up one of our poles here in Easton,” local NAACP member Charles W. Dickerson, a U.S. Navy veteran, said during a news conference in City Hall. “It’s just a great honor for me to be able to be part of the team with the NAACP, and we look forward to doing more of this kind of work as we go forward.”

Displayed on a lectern in city council chambers was one of the banners, honoring Easton’s William Terry Gibson, who was killed June 18, 1968, in Vietnam’s Quang Tri province while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps. Mayor Sal Panto Jr. recalled growing up in the same neighborhood with Gibson, who was a standout wrestler.

“Defending our rights to be able to say what we want, do what we want, belong to what religion we want, vote the way we want, is really important and the men and women of the service are the ones who do that,” Panto said. “They give us that right. And so I want to thank them for their service on this Memorial Day weekend.”

About 50 banners, which come with mounting brackets, are set to go up in coming weeks and remain up through Veterans Day, Panto said.

The local NAACP is offering the banners as a community service project, not a fundraiser, Panto stressed. The first round cost about $136 per banner, with families being charged $100, Panto said. The price going forward is not set and is dependent on fundraising, said Moore-Curry.

The banners are being made available for veterans from the Easton and Wilson area school districts.

“We expect this to grow,” Panto said. “Every year we’ll be doing this so that next year if a loved one isn’t up we’ll be more than happy to put it up for the next year.”

The local NAACP invites those looking to learn more to contact the branch through its website, naacp-eastonpa.org.

The Hometown Hero banner initiative is new for Easton, and follows similar veteran recognition efforts in other local communities including Phillipsburg.

Local events this weekend honoring those who died while defending the United States include:

The Memorial Day parade in Easton is set to start at 10:30 a.m. Monday from South Sixth and Walnut streets, proceeding down Northampton Street to Riverside Park for joint ceremonies with Phillipsburg on the free bridge and in the riverside amphitheater.

The Bethlehem Memorial Day parade begins at 9 a.m. Monday at Liberty High School and proceeds up Linden Street to Bethlehem Memorial Park for a brief ceremony, sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council.

Northampton Memorial Shrine, 3051 Green Pond Road in Palmer Township, is hosting a Memorial Day service at 9 a.m. Saturday.

The American Legion Auxiliary, Rice Ebner Unit 588, invites the public to its annual Memorial Day Ceremony supported by American Legion, Rice Ebner Post 588, at 1 p.m. Sunday at McKeen Park, West Berwick and Reynolds streets in Easton, next to the South Side Fire Station.

SteelStacks in Bethlehem is hosting a Memorial Day service at 3 p.m. Monday at the Levitt Pavilion. The ceremony will be followed by a luminary display honoring those who served in the U.S. Armed Forces, titled “Remember Our Heroes,” at 8 p.m.

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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.

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