June 14 is typically a day set aside to honor the Stars and Stripes, celebrating the flag’s official adoption on that day in 1777.
But two local groups, however, will spend the day honoring the men and women who have fought to protect it with events in Zephyrhills and Dade City. And those with a fast enough car might be able to make both of them.
Southport Springs will kick it all off with a dedication beginning at 10 a.m. of a memorial that will feature the service flags from all the military branches as well as an inscribed granite stone. The community, located at 3737 Southport Springs Parkway in Zephyrhills, itself is the home of more than 200 veterans.
Among the flags that will join the memorial near the community’s clubhouse will be the American flag, as well as the prisoner of war flag. The memorial also will have a brick wall with two benches, and red flower beds to symbolize the red stripes of the nation’s flag.
The memorial is not just for those who traveled overseas to fight, but also for those who stayed behind to support the war effort at home, beginning to World War I nearly a century ago.
That event will be followed 13 miles away at the Historic Dade City Courthouse on Meridian Avenue as county officials join together to rededicate the World War II memorial that has graced the courthouse gazebo since 1954.
Pasco County and Dade City used grant money as well as private donations to replace the aging wood facades with more permanent granite, listing the names of the 1,855 people who represented the county during that great war.
“Unfortunately, they are reaching an age where they are not going to be with us much longer,” Pasco County commissioner Ted Schrader, one of the leaders of the restoration effort, told The Laker last week. “It was important for those who are still alive and for their family members that we make sure this memorial is here forever.”
That event kicks off at 11 a.m., and will include U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor. To read more about that service, click here.
For more information on the Southport Springs dedication, call (813) 782-3800.
