Downtown DeLand To Honor Local Veterans With Street Pole Banners

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DeLand, FL - Two area Florida Hospitals are sponsoring the City of DeLand's plans to publicly honor the area's military veterans.

On Monday night, DeLand's City Commission approved the Hometown Heroes Military program. The program seeks to honor past and present veterans, including those who died serving their country, by displaying their likenesses on street pole banners along Woodland Blvd. in Downtown. These banners will display a photo of the veteran on both sides and will detail their branch of service and the number of years served.

Service members or their families will receive a smaller-scale replica of the banner courtesy of Trophy Factory. The banners will be produced by Express Printing.

“Many of our veterans and their families often make enormous sacrifices,” said veteran and DeLand Mayor, Robert F. Apgar. “DeLand prides itself with being a patriotic community and celebrating our veterans. This program is a manifestation of DeLand’s patriotism and it will be a great way for the city and community to pay tribute for everything active serving military and veterans have done for us.”

According to the City of DeLand, the program, which begins in July, will honor more than 100 veterans over the span of three years thanks to Florida Hospital DeLand and Florida Hospital Fish Memorial who agreed to sponsor the program during that time.

“We are thrilled to partner with the City of DeLand to recognize the heroes in our community who have bravely served our country. We are all grateful for their personal sacrifice, serving this great nation,” said Florida Hospital DeLand CEO Lorenzo Brown and Florida Hospital Fish Memorial CEO Rob Deininger in a joint statement. “Within our Florida Hospital family, many of our care team members have also had careers in the U.S. military. We are proud of their dedicated service and they are terrific members of our hospital team.”

Applicants will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis as space is limited to 34 veterans each year. The program is only open to DeLand residents or a veteran's immediate family member that lives in DeLand. The program is free-of-cost and those interesting in applying can do so on the third floor at City Hall. Applicants will need to show proof of residency, verification of active or past military service with an honorable discharge (DD-214 form), and a large, high-quality photograph of themselves or the veteran in uniform.

The application is also available online. Applications and the necessary documentation can be submitted to Coco Montanez via email at montaneza@deland.org.

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