Page 13 - December 27, 2017

2017
De
year in review

Getting ready for this year's Kiwanis Club of Chester Christmas Parade,
Joann Duncan made her banners look sharp. She became a Gold Star sister after
her brother was killed in Vietnam in 1969, 12 days after his 19th birthday. Duncan
struggled with accepting her brother’s death, but after reading about a Gold Star
for her son, she decided to make one of her brother. Remember
mother in Washington state who had made a banner
“When I gave the picture to the gentleman who the fallen
was making them, I thought, ‘Well, it’s going to be
like the picture.’ When he unrolled it, it hit me like
everybody else, even though I knew I was having it done, but [now] it was like,
in your face, this is real,” Duncan said. “I’ve had a hard time coming out with
accepting [my brother’s death] because for so many years, it was there but I never
acknowledged it because … if I acknowledged it then it was true.”
Duncan set out to find other Gold Star families for whom she could make In the junior championship game
banners for but her search was not fruitful. She got in touch with someone in of the 2017 Chesterfield Quaterback
Fredericksburg, who led her to local Gold Star mothers, Mary Reed and Helen League Super Bowl, the Chester Ben-
Newman, and eventually Angela Bellamy, the Survivor Outreach Services gals defeated the Spring Run Huskies
coordinator on Fort Lee. 13-7.
Duncan said Bellamy was a big help in finding information on fallen soldiers After a Chester
and their families, and she then started the Virginia Fallen Heroes Memorial scoreless first
Banner Project in 2012. She currently has 69 banners, 15 of which are from the half, Spring Bengals
Vietnam War while the rest are from the Iraq and Afghanistan era, and her goal is Run scored junior
to have banners for the entire state of Virginia. first in the
Duncan does not charge families for the banners, instead raising money third quarter, champions
through soliciting and fundraisers, and she said she has sometimes paid for them then Chester
out of her own pocket. Duncan is so passionate about the banners and Gold Star scored two
families that last year, despite having foot surgery and being instructed not to touchdowns of their own.
walk, she walked the entirety of the Chester parade. Coach Tommy Barber said, "The
boys...truly formed a bond that will
never be broken."

748-6461

12420 Jefferson Davis Highway
Chester, VA
On the corner of Route 1 & Route 10

Heritage Chevrolet Congratulates November Associates

of the Month, 2017 TOP GUN and SPARK PLUG AWARD!

DALTON MOORE HARRY REEBENAKER
PAUL CYR HARRY REEBENAKER CINDY THOMAS 2016 SPARK CRNCDA TOP GUN
SALES TECHNICIAN ASSOCIATE PLUG AWARD WINNER

Associates ready to help you anytime!

news@villagenewsonline.com DECEMBER 27, 2017 13