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Remembering those who served

Fairfax honors veterans through banner program

By Clay Schuldt 5 min read

FAIRFAX - As of Wednesday, nearly every light post in Fairfax has been adorned with custom banners, each featuring the name, rank, branch of service, and photo of a Fairfax veteran. In total, there are 68 veteran banners on display in Fairfax, with more likely to come next year.

These banners are part of the Hometown Heroes Banner program, which was the idea of Denise Schaefer, who was inspired by a similar display she saw while taking her husband, John Schafer, to a VA appointment.

She said on their way to the appointment in St. Cloud, they passed through the town of Kimball, Minnesota, which had veteran banners hanging from each light post.

Denise Schaefer said after seeing this in Kimball, she knew they had to do the same in Fairfax.

Her husband, John Schaefer, said Denise sprang into action right away.

"The day we got back from St. Cloud, she was on the phone the next day," he said.

She started by contacting the City of Fairfax to see if it was feasible. Then called officials in Kimball to see how it was done.

For the project to work, Denise Schaefer needed to find Fairfax veterans and people willing to sponsor the banners. She began by sending out social media posts, but later contacted Fairfax's newspaper, Standard-Gazette & Messenger. The paper ran a small article explaining the idea behind the Hometown Hero Banner.

Family, friends and community members could sponsor a banner for a veteran. The cost to sponsor a single banner started at $130. Since the banner costs was covered through sponsorships, there is no cost to the City of Fairfax. The only thing the city provides is staff time to place the banners.

In addition to the article in the paper, the Schaefers contacted a few veteran families in person to further get the word out. The deadline to sponsor a banner was July 31.

Denise Schaefer admitted she was not sure how many sponsorships to expect. She reached out to the City of Kimball to get a rough estimate on a starting number of banners.

Kimball's City Administrator said they had gotten the idea from Rapid City, South Dakota. Rapid City had started with 17 veteran banners.

"I thought, 'if we get 10 here, we should be good,'" she said. "I never dreamed we would have over 60."

The first week of the banner campaign started slow, but word of mouth began to spread and soon the Schaefers were get several calls for sponsorship.

Denise Schaefer said she knew Fairfax had space for 35 banners and believed that would be the high-end possibility, but by July 31 she had nearly double that number.

"Even after the deadline, I had a few people not real happy with me because they missed the deadline," Denise Schaefer said.

The number of sponsorships exceeded the number of hanging brackets the City of Fairfax had on hand. In order to hang all of the banners, the Schaefers had to fund raise to cover the cost of extra brackets.

Fortunately, the community came through for them.

"People stepped up to buy the brackets," John Schaefer said. "We raised more funds than we needed."

Denise Schaefer said the community response was amazing. Many people, after donating, told her they would donate more if needed.

The veteran banners began to go up on Monday, Sept. 28. All of the banners were placed by Wednesday, Sept. 30. Half of the banners are hanging along the State Highway 19 corridor through Fairfax. Others are hanging around the downtown blocks near City Hall and the Depot Museum.

John Schaefer said the city workers were great about matching the veterans with locations in town. If there was space next to a building that particular veteran once owned, that's where the vet's banner was placed.

John Schaefer said that, as a member of the Fairfax City Council and a Marine Corps veteran, he asked if his banner could be placed next to City Hall. Staff agreed and now John's photo is hanging near the front entrance to City Hall.

The Schaefers were pleased with the number of submissions, but also the range of veterans represented. Most banners depict Fairfax veterans who served in WII, Korean and Vietnam, but there is a WWI veteran and few veterans from the War on Terror. Every branch of the Armed Forces is represented.

The banners will remain up through Nov. 11 (Veterans Day), but will be taken down ahead of the holidays and replaced with Fairfax's Christmas banners. The plan is to put the veteran banners back up next year around April.

Denise Schaefer said they want the veteran banners back up for Memorial Day and Flag Day. There is also a plan to start another sponsorship campaign in January. This will give them time to order new banners before Memorial Day.

Denise Schaefer said there were many who missed the previous deadline and since the banners went up this week, her phone has been ringing off the hook with additional sponsors. She already has a waiting list of 25 new veterans.

"We're going to run out of light poles," she said.

The Schaefers are amazed by the community’s response to the program. Considering Fairfax's population is around 1,250 people, the fact that the community has nearly 70 veterans to honor, with more to come, is impressive.

Denise Schaefer said her main goal with starting the Heroes Banner project was to raise awareness of the many veterans in the community.

"I feel veterans don't get the recognition they deserve and this is one thing they could do," she said.

John Schaefer agreed that veteran recognition could be better. He was concerned that many people were forgetting their veterans. Programs like this help put a face to those veterans and insure people will continue to remember.

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