Story and photo by Heather Muh
LITTLE SILVER – New Jersey’s 34th Blue Star monument was unveiled by the Little Silver Garden Club during a Veterans Day ceremony Tuesday, Nov. 11, that honored all past, present and future members of the armed forces.
A crowd that included residents, local and state officials gathered in Memorial Park as members of the garden club and New Jersey Blue Star Memorial Highway Council revealed the newest addition to the park, a Blue Star by-way marker. Under a sunny sky with 60-degree temperatures, the ceremony consisted of heartfelt speeches, musical tributes and, most importantly, the unveiling of the monument.
According to Joan Cichalski, the Little Silver Garden Club president, the group first developed the idea for the memorial years ago when a veteran spoke to them about it. “It’s something we’ve wanted to do,” the garden club’s Blue Star Committee member Astrid Drangeid said.
The group brought the idea to Mayor Robert C. Neff Jr., who described the decision to move forward with the project as an easy one to make.
“It’s a terrific addition to the Memorial Park,” Neff said. “We have great volunteers in the garden club and they really stepped up.”
He said a small town, like Little Silver, really relies on committees and clubs such as the garden club. “They’re a wonderful, terrific group of ladies,” he said.
Cichalski led the Blue Star Committee through the application process for the by-way marker. Three years later, their hard work paid off. “I had a great committee,” Cichalski said.
During the ceremony, Garden Club Central Atlantic director Mary Warshauer said the Blue Star Memorial Program began in 1944 at the close of World War II when New Jersey Garden Clubs wanted to find a way to honor veterans. They decided to plant thousands of flowering dogwood trees along a highway to serve as a living memorial.
The blue star was adopted as the program’s symbol because it represented the blue star on the flags that families who had loved ones at war would hang in their houses.
“Blue Star Memorials are to thank anybody who served in any way,” the garden club’s Blue Star Committee member Cindy Webster said.
Little Silver’s own Blue Star marker was unveiled by Cichalski, Neff, Little Silver Borough Council President Donald Galante, and N.J. Blue Star Memorial Highway Council Secretary David Earl, along with two veterans from the audience.
After the ceremony concluded with a benediction by the Rev. Terry Highland, a veteran himself, the crowd stood around taking pictures with the monument, talking with one another, and enjoying refreshments provided by the garden club.
State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos, R-Monmouth, was pleased by the ceremony and monument. “This was the most fitting, all-American ceremony in a great all-American town, in a community that counts its blessings and remembers those who protect our country’s people, opportunities and freedoms which are unique in the history of the world,” Kyrillos said. Neff told onlookers that the borough plans to hold a small ceremony at the monument each year to honor veterans.
Also in attendance were members of Boy Scout Troop 126, who presented the colors, and the Markham Place School chorus, which sang renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America.”
During the past 70 years, 34 Blue Star monuments have been placed in New Jersey, six of which were established during the last five years.
