With the intention of honoring the servicemen and women that call Yelm and surrounding areas home, a Blue Star Marker plaque will be unveiled at Tim’s Pharmacy to allow community members to pay their respects to those who have served in the U.S. military.
The event is set for 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 11, at the garden of Tim’s Pharmacy near the corner of state routes 507 and 510. A Blue Star Marker plaque will be placed on a boulder in the business’s garden for public viewing.
Line Roy, the City of Yelm’s parks and recreations coordinator, is helping coordinate the event with members of Tim’s Pharmacy, and said that the Blue Star markers originated in 1944 after the end of World War II in order to honor the service members returning home from the war.
According to GardenClub.org, the program began with the planting of 8,000 dogwood trees by the New Jersey Council of Garden Clubs in 1944. One year later, the National Council of State Garden Clubs adopted the program and began a Blue Star Highway system that spans across thousands of miles in the United States.
“These were organizations that were looking for ways to honor the servicemen and women. This one organization planted dogwood trees, and then they named it after the blue stars that were in the windows of the homes of people that were out serving,” Roy said. “Where Tim’s has their big digital sign, they redid that section so there’s a nice section that walks through it. The plaque will be right in that area. I’m hoping you can see it from the streets, and when you walk through that path.”
Though the tradition began by planting dogwood trees, Roy said it eventually transitioned over to smaller tributes like statues, sculptures, rocks, plaques — or any marker that signifies this is an area that honors its military men and women.
“They have been doing them since the 1940s. We’re adding one here in Yelm at that corner as a way to signify and honor the military men and women that live here, since Yelm is such a strong military community,” Roy said. “For us, anything that we can do as a community to remember our service members and everything they’ve given up as military personnel. I think it’s important to be able to commemorate those individuals. It will be a good daily reminder that Yelm has grown because of our military community and that we should be welcoming them and grateful that they’re choosing Yelm as their home and community.”
