RUSSELLVILLE - Generations came together to honor veterans through the development of the Russellville City Park Blue Star Memorial, dedicated Friday at the Railroad Park downtown.
Dozens of youth from three clubs at Russellville High School spent two months this spring fundraising with meat sticks and chocolate bars to raise $1,500 of the $2,000 required to cover the cost of the traditional federated garden clubs' metal marker.
Mostly elderly members of the Capital Garden Club sponsored the new blue star marker and saw it through the application process.
Then, young adults, like local military historian Jeremy Amick, put in the labor to permanently install the marker.
More than 100 people from the town of Russellville, as well as the participating groups, gathered to watch the unveiling, specifically targeted for this Veterans Day.
"A lot of us have family members who are veterans, so this meant a lot to them," said Beta Club member Katelyn Shields.
The local school's National Honor Society (NHS) and FFA chapter also enlisted community support for the fundraiser.
"We're all about helping the community," said NHS President McKendra Fischer. "It's special to have made such an impact. This is a different kind of service (for us)."
The patriotic project fit into FFA's mission, said President Natalie Benne, since they say the Pledge of Allegiance and salute the flag as part of all of their official meetings.
"We thought this was an awesome, cool idea," Benne said. "You can see this."
The first Blue Star marker in Missouri was set in 1949 near Sedalia in the Queen of the Prairies Park, from where it was stolen in 2011.
Cynthia Brodersen, the Missouri Blue Star Memorial chairman for the Federated Garden Clubs of Missouri, shared the program's history from its beginning in New Jersey in 1945 to more than 2,800 markers nationwide.
This marker is the 97th installed in Missouri.
The Blue Star was a symbol hung in homes with servicemembers during World War II and was then used as part of a living memorial to past, present and future servicemembers.
Brodersen closed with a quote from former President Ronald Reagan:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction."