It took three years worth of planning, donations and team effort but this Saturday the Marine Hills Garden Club will finally dedicate a Blue Star Marker to the city of Federal Way.
“It’s been a labor of love,” said Penny Merriman, the Marine Hills Garden Club president. “I’m guessing many of these women who have donated lots of hours have veterans in their families. When we decided to do this, everyone was really excited.”
The garden club will donate the Blue Star Marker at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 16 at Celebration Park. May 16 is Armed Forces Day and the marker will honor past, present and future armed forces.
Former club president Debbie Angel came up with the idea to purchase the bronze plaque in 2012. With a unanimous vote, the club raised enough money, $410, to purchase the marker. Merriman said they raised the money with the help of club treasurer Judy McDonald, who runs a plant sale in April.
Coming up with the funds wasn’t the only challenge.
Merriman, a retired Federal Way Public Schools teacher, said finding a rock to attach the Blue Star Marker and a location for that rock took awhile to accomplish.
Eventually, Lloyd Sand and Gravel in Tacoma donated the rock, and the city of Federal Way helped secure a location. Merriman said the 25-member club relied on Derreck Presnell’s help to chisel the plaque into the rock and the help of Jason Gerwen, the parks and facilities manager for the city, as he transported the marker so Merriman and others could plant flowers around it a couple of months ago.
Councilman Bob Celski said Merriman contacted him in 2013 and he worked with former Public Works and Parks and Recreation Director Cary Roe to identify Celebration Park as the spot.
“[Penny] wanted it in a recognizable place,” Celski said, noting that Blue Star Markers are often found on freeways, cemeteries and parks. “I’m real proud of the Marine Hills Garden Club for joining this effort.”
Celski, an Army veteran, said the marker is important because it recognizes the sacrifice armed forces have made not just for their service but for their families as well.
“It’s like with my son and daughter-in-law, she had to stay home by herself while pregnant, which is not uncommon for people in the military defending our country,” Celski said, referring to his son who recently got back from serving overseas.
Merriman said Celski will help unveil the Blue Star Marker at the ceremony, which is expected to draw about 100-150 people.
Angel, the current Chinook District director for the 10 garden clubs Marine Hills Garden Club is a part of, will give a speech at the event followed by song “America the Beautiful,” a Veterans of Foreign Wars Color Guard and Todd Beamer Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps presentation and refreshments served by Girl Scouts with Boy Scouts also in attendance. June Willard, the state’s Blue Marker chairman, will also speak at the event.
The Blue Star Marker originated after World War II when national garden clubs were looking for ways to honor the nation’s service men and women.
In 1944, the Garden Club of New Jersey president and a Roadside chairman came up with the idea to plant 1,000 Dogwood trees along five miles of highway, which the Legislature designated as Blue Star Drive.
After the National Garden Clubs adopted the program in 1945, by 1951 the mission had spread and finally included all men and women who served, were serving or would serve in the armed forces.
Now, there are close to 2,500 Blue Star Markers in the United States, with 45 in Washington state, according to the Marine Hills Garden Club.
The local club meets the third Tuesday of every month at Foundation House.
In addition to their plant sale, they plant greenery at the Federal Way Historical Society, donate vegetables to Nautilus Elementary and a local food bank, and donate scholarship money to go to a college student who is going into the horticulture field.
