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HAYESVILLE — About a year ago, when Jim Tugend drove through Jeromesville, he noticed banners honoring local veterans hanging on the village’s utility poles.
It was the Memorial Day holiday and he thought it was a good way to honor veterans.
A couple months later, Tugend visited a friend in Wilmington. Again, the town had banners of veterans hanging on its utility poles.
The retired third-generation dairy farmer found himself inspired.
A member of Hayesville’s Lions Club for around 17 years, Tugend said he brought the idea to the group. He first mentioned it in June 2023, but there wasn’t much interest.
In September 2023, Tugend brought it up to the Lions again. That time, there were questions, he said. People wanted to know about costs, and debated whether the project was the type of community service the Lions Club should tackle.
The interest heightened. A ball began to roll.
By Memorial Day, nearly 130 of Hayesville’s veterans had banners with their names, the years they served and the branch they served with displayed on utility poles throughout the village.
Eighteen Lions Club members and other Hayesville volunteers have contributed 288 man hours combined to the project, with the cost completely covered by the local AmVets post.
“I feel privileged to have done it,” Tugend said. “I feel very honored to do this for (our veterans).”
Building a partnership
After the Lions Club’s September meeting, Tugend said the largest question to answer was regarding the cost for the banners and brackets. The banners came with a $93 apiece price tag, while the brackets cost $23.
But he said the club didn’t want to ask veterans to pay, so it needed an alternative funding source.
He also counted up the number of utility poles, so they’d know how many banners could be used.
Tugend took the project to Hayesville’s AmVets post, Post 1969.
“After I finished, Brian Cline raised his hand and said, ‘I move to give $10,000 to this project,'” Tugend said.
Cline, the post administrator for AmVets Post 1969, said the organization does a lot for Hayesville. They donate to schools and the fire department, but have struggled to find projects that offer an avenue to center veterans.
But, as an AmVets post, that’s part of the organization’s purpose, in Cline’s estimation. It should be a place for veterans and their families — along with other community members — to go and receive support.
The banner project, Cline said, offered a way to focus on veterans.
Once the AmVet group put up funding, Tugend began the process of contacting veterans, which he said “snowballed.” He hoped for around 50-60 veterans or families of veterans in Hayesville and Vermillion Township would want to hang banners.
“People would give me a name, and then they’d give me another,” Tugend said.
The number was large enough that the AmVets post put up more money, with the project’s total cost sitting at $15,486, according to Tugend.
Cline said the AmVets post was able to do so through use of its Memorial Fund. Dollars from the Memorial Fund have to go to a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, according to Cline.
He said they donated the funds to the Ashland County Community Foundation, and then were able to get the dollars back to complete the project that way.
Honoring Hayesville’s veterans
Cline said they had a cutoff to get information about veterans turned in around March or April so they could get the banners printed. They used Truax Printing to create the banners, Tugend said.
Then, with the help of Hayesville mayor Robin Beasley and her husband, Dan Beasley, volunteers and Lions Club members used a tractor and lift to adorn the utility poles with the banners, Tugend and Cline said.
Tugend said they tried to match up banners based on veterans’ locations. For example, if the veteran lived on the east side of the town square, they tried to put that veteran’s banner on the side of the square where they lived.
He also said they have veterans spanning back to the Civil War.
They put all the banners up for Memorial Day. Cline said it was “a pretty involved project” to put up the banners, so they’ll likely have them up all year.
Tugend said since they hung the banners, more than 40 additional veterans or their families have reached out for banners to be made in their honor.
Cline and Tugend both said they’ve heard nothing but positive feedback about the project.
“It’s a source of pride for the Hayesville community,” Cline said.
Tugend said the project was personal for him, too. Both his father and grandfather have banners displaying their information in the village.
He said it humbled him to be able to do something to honor veterans.
“Our country wouldn’t be what it is without them,” Tugend said.
For veterans in Hayesville or Vermillion Township who are interested in a banner, Tugend said he could be contacted through the Hayesville Lions Club.