By Laura Marie
For years, Chris Haynes, a Maintenance Supervisor for the City of Hamilton and chair of the Veterans Hall of Fame committee, has had a dream. It came to the forefront a few years back as he visited other parts of Ohio.
“I served as a VFW State Commander, 2015 and 2016, and I had a lot of opportunities to travel around the state and see what other VFWs and other organizations do,” says Haynes. “I got to attend a couple of Hall of Fames, whether it was the State of Ohio’s Hall of Fame for Veterans, or Crawford County has a little county Hall of Fame. I kept thinking to myself, ‘Why doesn’t Hamilton have one?’”
Haynes set about assembling a coalition of individuals in the city of Hamilton to create the first-ever Veterans’ Hall of Fame. They evaluated some of the potential candidates and came up with an “inaugural class” for the Hall of Fame.
“This is a very veteran-friendly city, both for those who live here now or were born here and moved away, so it is time that we recognize them,” explains Haynes. “It gives everybody an opportunity to know who their veterans are in their city. There are a lot of people who don’t know their next-door neighbor is a veteran. It’s one way to recognize not only what they did in the service, but also what did they do when they came back home?”
The first class of veterans will be inducted into the City of Hamilton Veterans Hall of Fame on Sunday, November 10 at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts. Doors open at 1pm and the ceremony begins at 2pm.
The ceremony will include a colorguard by a local JROTC unit, and the guest speaker will be General Rick Lynch, a distinguished veteran himself who was raised in Hamilton, Ohio. The awardees in the first class of the Veterans Hall of Fame will receive a plaque and a medal, and a plaque bearing all of the names from the ceremony will hang in the city building. The general public is welcome to attend, and the event is free.
While the first year’s class has been selected, a nomination form will be available year-round for individuals to nominate veterans in their lives that they know well and believe deserve a recognition. The cut-off for nominations is October 1st of each year to be considered for that calendar year’s celebration, which will always occur near Veterans Day in November. While not every nominee will be inducted, all nominated individuals’ files will be kept for potential inclusion in future years.
Haynes, who spent eight years serving in the United States Navy, believes that it is important to recognize our veterans, not just this time of year, but all the time.
“Consider the sacrifice that they made,
whether they volunteered or were drafted,” says Haynes.
“They chose to do something that served something bigger than themselves. Many
of them came back to their hometown, and they raised families here.”
Haynes saw this as an ideal time to get the first class of veterans going, with so much on the horizon for the city in the future. 2019 was the time to create a firm foundation.
“With the city growing the way it has been, it was time to bring some recognition here in the city,” says Haynes. Register to attend this event at the Chamber of Commerce Register to attend this event at the Chamber of Commerce website: www.hamilton-ohio.com