Millersville Borough will honor its hometown heroes by joining the nationwide trend of placing banners on light poles to recognize veterans.

"We're certainly excited to join with the other municipalities that do this program," said borough manager Rebecca DeSantis-Randall. "We're excited that the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs is recognizing municipalities that have Hometown Hero projects. We're excited to be a part of a growing group."

Banner orders will be accepted through Friday, April 4, on a first-come, first-served basis. For the first year of the program, the borough will install a maximum of 23 banners.

The fee to order a banner covers the cost of the banner, the mounting kit, and pole attachment survey costs. Applications must include a photo of the service member to be included on the banner. DeSantis-Randall is encouraging people to send high-quality photos. "The better the picture, the better the banner," she said.

Banners will be installed throughout Millersville Borough on or before Memorial Day, Monday, May 26. An honoree must live or have lived in Millersville Borough or be a relative to someone who lives in the borough, and the honoree must have served in any branch of the armed forces.

Banner order forms are available at https://millersvilleborough.org and at the borough office, 100 Municipal Drive. For more information, call 717-872-4645, ext. 105.

The project's genesis came when Millersville resident Julie Crnkovich attended a public meeting last fall and said, "Wouldn't it be cool if we had the Hometown Hero project here in the borough?"

Crnkovich said she had thought about the idea for a while but wasn't sure how to bring it up until she saw borough council vice president Phyllis Giberson, who advised Crnkovich to come to a meeting.

"I really thought Millersville was a perfect place for the banners," Crnkovich said. She wanted to honor her father, Richard J. Frey, an Army veteran who died in 2019, and her uncle Kenneth Mann, 92, who now lives in California. The brothers lived in the borough.

"I'd like to plaster Millersville with the banners," said Crnkovich. "The banners look great, and the veterans deserve to be honored for the sacrifices they made to serve our country."

DeSantis-Randall said, "The borough had done a banner project with Millersville University a couple years back, so we are a little familiar with doing banners. But this was a new project for us."

DeSantis-Randall, Crnkovich, and Giberson formed a committee to study the Hometown Hero project. Crnkovich had a contact with a national organization, and the committee reached out to Columbia and Quarryville boroughs, which have Hometown Hero banners in their communities.

The committee worked with PPL to get permits to use the poles. Millersville Borough can apply to use up to 25 poles a year from PPL. "We hope to keep adding 25 every year, assuming we get interest," DeSantis-Randall said.

The first banners will be spread throughout the borough, including on Manor Avenue, Cottage Avenue, Charlotte Street, Landis Avenue, and Herr Avenue, DeSantis-Randall said.

The banners are expected to last between three and five years. "Our hope is that when they start looking like they should come down, we will give them to whoever it was that applied for that banner," said DeSantis-Randall. "Then we will give them an opportunity to do a new one, or we will open up that spot for somebody else."

Based on early feedback, DeSantis-Randall is optimistic. "There's been a lot of interest so far," she said on Feb. 19. "We've only had the application process open since the last day of January. So far, we have nine banners submitted. We still have some spots left, but we're really excited we have so many in the first few weeks. ... We're really hoping we get the word out and fill all 23."

The Hometown Hero banners project is the latest way Millersville Borough is remembering its veterans. "It ties in nicely with the things the borough is already doing with the Veterans Day ceremony and veterans memorial at Freedom Memorial Park," DeSantis-Randall said.

In other news, DeSantis-Randall is encouraging people to sign up to rent the borough's pavilions, gazebo, and ballfields. "The earlier the better," she said. "The pavilions are a big draw. There are plenty of dates open, but spots fill up quickly."

Registration forms are on the borough's website.