'We can’t forget': Veterans and service members memorialized in Windsor

Royal Canadian Legion Branch 255 has placed 40 banners along the hydro poles on Wyandotte Street East in Windsor, Ont., on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (Michelle Maluske/CTV News Windsor)

There are 40 banners displayed on hydro poles along Wyandotte Street East from now until after Remembrance Day.

“We can't forget those men and women that went off and not necessarily to war, but those who went and served,” said Marty Flanagan Veterans Banners Project coordinator for Royal Canadian Legion Branch 255.

“They went and signed a blank check, you know, up to and including their life for Canada. So it's the least we could do is put a banner up to make sure we're going to remember them.”

The project is a partnership between RCL Branch 255, the Olde Riverside Business Improvement Association and Enwin Utilities.

Linemen spent two hours on Sunday putting the banners in place.

“They were total pros and they knocked it out of the park,” said Flanagan. “We had more damage than we thought originally. So we had to do some, switching around to where we wanted some of the banners to go.”

The banners themselves are made in Ontario by a company that is owned by a veteran who donates profits to homeless vets, according to Flanagan.

The banners will be in place through until Nov. 18.

“The families, when they first see the banner, (and it) goes up for the first time and the look on their face? It's.. you can't quantify that,” said Flanagan.

He hopes to expand the project next year.

“I'd like to go from Thompson all the way down to the Metro, to the cenotaph. I'd like to have both sides of the street done. And, that's still a goal of mine. Just that we need to go through some red tape first,” he said.