In one Centre County community, the annual Veterans Day ceremony includes a special tribute to their hometown heroes.
Bob Bird, with his daughter Vicki Taylor, jokes that he’s a little older now than how he’s pictured in a new banner, which is located along South Allegheny Street in Bellefonte.
It was 70 years ago when Bird graduated from Bellefonte High School, joined the Army and went to war.
“I was in from 53 to 55, in Korea.”
Bird is one of the more than 50 area veterans being celebrated in a new round of ‘hometown heroes’ banners in Bellefonte.
After a Veterans Day ceremony on the courthouse steps, the new banners were unveiled Monday with family and friends looking on.
“it’s just an opportunity for people to go around the town every day and see those who, in some cases, I don’t know if we have any who died in battle, those veterans who did sacrifice for us. Hopefully, it’s not just a Veterans Day recognition, but something that you can do every day.”
The ‘hometown heroes’ banners were first unveiled in Bellefonte in 2015.
Every several years, a new group of veterans is selected, and in the process, hundreds of area veterans have been honored in the past nine years.
