Community hero banners on display in Scottdale

A chat between friends about the hero banners on display in Greensburg sparked a months-long community project in Scottdale that came to fruition this spring.

Memorial Day found 81 banners placed on light poles on the main thoroughfares bringing traffic through the community.

Ruffsdale native and Greensburg resident Shelley Hoyle told Scottdale’s Kathy Lighthall about the banner effort in Greensburg and a few months after first discussing the possibilities in the fall of 2021, the Scottdale project was born.

The banners recognize veterans from World War I through the war in Iraq, but “it’s not just veterans, it’s any Scottdale heroes,” Lighthall said, from the mayor to firemen and police, along with veterans.

“I attended the Greensburg ceremony that honored (Hoyle’s) dad two years ago,” Lighthall said. “I thought, ‘wouldn’t that be good to do in town?’ so I went to my councilman, Jack Davis.

Lighthall and Davis were joined by Scottdale’s Joe Levandosky to pull the effort together. Davis no longer serves on borough council. Another Scottdale resident, Larry Keslar, was key in organizing fundraising for the project, Lighthall said.

Levandosky developed a website to complete the banner display — scottdaleheroes.org — and a booklet containing each banner along with the stories behind some of the heroes.

Banners and booklets were distributed to participants May 30 at the downtown gazebo park.

Lighthall said the banners installed by the Scottdale Volunteer Fire Department will stay on display until sometime in September when they’ll be taken down for storage in order to protect them from winter weather. They’ll be on display again in the spring.

“They’ll go up in that rotation as long as we can.”

Lighthall said the banner project cost about $13,000 — covered by “many generous donors.”