To the residents of Coaldale,

The definition of a hero is a person who is admired for great/brave act or fine qualities. The definition of a veteran is a person who served in the active military, and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable. Both of these terms describe my brother, Billy Weaver of Coaldale, who passed away last year. He is my personal hero. As a way to honor him, I started the Coaldale Hometown Hero Banner program.

I am not from Coaldale. I was born and raised in Tamaqua and currently live in Ringtown. I was motivated by seeing banners hung in most other local towns, and with the help of a few residents from Coaldale, I set out to do my part to also honor Coaldale’s veterans.

My project is not associated with the Coaldale Borough, Coaldale council or the Coaldale VFW; it is organized and managed by myself and a few private volunteers.

After months of hard work and dedication to seeing the project through, and via the donations of over 100 Coaldale families who wanted to see their loved ones memorialized, we were able to hang the first round of banners this spring.

Unfortunately, Murphy’s Law being what it is, what could go wrong did go wrong during the process. I ran into logistical problems, learned from mistakes and the process took longer than expected, but finally we met our goal and the banners were hung.

Mother Nature has obviously not been very kind this year, and some of the banners have experienced damage. When we find this is happening, we do our best to address the problem as quickly as possible.

Please remember, we are private citizens and are financing this entire operation based on the donations from the public; we cannot just stop what we’re doing and immediately address all problems as soon as they are reported. That said, we are committed to making sure any and all issues are taken care of.

For those of you who appreciate the program, I am very happy to be doing it for you. For those of you who have issues with it, political or otherwise, I am sorry to have bothered you. For those of you who would like to order a banner and memorialize your veteran hero, for your convenience you can pick up an application at the borough hall from Suzanne. Any questions, comments or suggestions can be emailed to s17967c@ptd.net

Respectfully,

Sherri Cook-Pengrin

Ringtown