Sikeston Veterans Park retires 2024 banners, installs new set for 2025

Rice “Pete” Burns Jr. of Sikeston, left, accepts the banner of his father, the late Rice P. Burns Sr., from members of the Sikeston Veterans Park Committee during a ceremony Monday, Nov. 11. On Monday, the Park retired the banners displayed from 2023-2024 and recognized the new set of veterans featured on the banners, which will be on display form 2024-2025. (Rod Anderson/Standard Democrat)

SIKESTON — Sikeston Veterans Park’s new class of veterans/banners were recognized and the 2023-2024 honor banners were retired and given back to veterans and their families during a ceremony Monday, Nov. 11 at the park.

Sponsored by the Sikeston Convention and Visitors Bureau, Sikeston Parks & Recreation and the Veterans Park Committee, the Sikeston Honors Veteran’s Banner Project began in October 2023 with a call for veterans’ applications, and the committee drew 16 names from the submitted applications in a lottery drawing. Those 16 banners were placed on the light posts at Veterans Park and were on display for approximately one year before being taken down prior to Monday’s ceremony.

The 2024-2025 veterans/honor banners were recognized and now hang on the light ples in Sikeston Veterans Park.

Sikeston veteran Roger Sherman poses with his family under the banner placedd in honor of him at Monday, Nov. 11 at Sikeston Veterans Park. Sherman is one of 16 veterans featured with banners at the park for the 2024-2025 year. (Rod Anderson/Standard Democrat)

The 16 individuals who were drawn in the second lottery and whose banners are now on display are

Roscoe Vaughan, Merlin G. Hagy, Claud J. Mayo, Gary “Bo” Ozment, James Arthur Tanner, Roger Sherman, Clarence Edward Felker Jr., James Robert Walton, Lawrence Lee Williams, James Blair Moran Jr., Carlton F. Adams, Thomas Allen Staggs, John Russell Felker, Wyatt Andrew Hicks-Johnson, Danny C. Hall and Lecil Lambert.

The 16 individuals chosen in the first lottery drawing and displayed in 2023-2024 were: John Frank Ferrell, Clay A. Mitchell Jr., Joseph Paul Henson, Michael K. Harris Sr., Doyle Wayne Noe III, Rice P. Burns Sr., Loring R. Helfrich, Warren G. Harber, Glenn Robert Jones, Ervin Edward Smith, Gerald R. Davis, Earl R. Standridge, Lester Vance Bowles, Fred Allen Estes, Henry Meldrum, Billie Gene Kanell.

Veterans and/or their family members who had a banner displayed 2023-2024 at Sikeston Veterans Park pose for a photo after the banners were retired and given to them Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (Rod Anderson/Standard Democrat)

Once the banners are retired, they are returned to the applicant, and a new group of veterans are chosen from the lottery pool to be honored.

The banners honor veterans from all branches of the military. The photos featured are a combination of family photos, action shots, or official military photos. QR Codes are posted on the light posts at the park that direct smart phone users to the project’s website: https://www.sikeston.net/veterans-banners/ where each veterans military history is displayed.

This project began around 2022 when the Sikeston Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) partnered with the city’s Parks & Recreation Department and the Veterans Park Committee to plan the project. The CVB applied for and received a Missouri Humanities Council Grant to partially fund the project and the Sikeston Honors Veterans Committee raised the additional sponsorships needed to purchase the light posts. Sikeston Board of Municipal Utilities partnered with the group to cover the installation as an in-kind donation.