“Words cannot express the gratitude that I feel to everyone,” said St. Armand town Supervisor and St. Armand Veterans Memorial Park Task Force Chair Davina Thurston, who spearheaded the effort to build the park and memorial.

The park, located next to the Bloomingdale Town Hall, is not quite complete yet. It is expected to be finished by the end of the month. But on Monday, families were able to gather amid the large rectangular stones and read the names of family members who served on plaques.

Thurston grew up in Keene, where she often visited her hometown veterans memorial, where her father and her uncles are memorialized. After working as the St. Armand town historian in the mid 2010s, after she was elected to be supervisor in 2019, she pitched the idea of the town creating its own veterans memorial. She created a non-profit organization to raise money.

The organization began hanging “hometown hero” banners with the photos and names of local veterans on electric poles around town.

St. Armand Veterans Memorial Park Task Force members Nancy Hurteau, Donna Whitelaw, Davina Thurston, Kate Lynch-Lewis, Cheri Fisher and Joe Fisher admire the town’s new Veterans Memorial Park after cutting the ribbon on it on Monday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

They held brick sales, bake sales, raffles, dart games, a sock hop and a boot scoot.

“You name it, we did it,” Thurston said. “What you see here behind us is the culmination of those efforts.”

Behind her, was a large wooden pergola donated by Bloomingdale-based Specialty Wood Products, with stone benches, a brick walkway laid by Lance and Kyle Kriplin of Kriplin Masonry, flower beds surrounding the monuments and stone memorials created by Canton-based monument makers Witherbee and Whalen.

Thurston said everyone who bought a brick, a pie or a ticket pitched in. She named a couple people who helped a lot with the organizing, and by the end, had gotten choked up with emotion thinking about all the work they put into the park to honor veterans.

Thurston also thanked Dave Filsinger, who made the first major contribution to the park when he bought 10 bricks for family members, and Frank “Tiger” Whitelaw for his significant contribution to commemorate family.

St. Armand Veterans Memorial Park Task Force members Joe Fisher Cheri Fisher, Davina Thurston, Nancy Hurteau, Donna Whitelaw and Kate Lynch-Lewis cut the ribbon on the town’s new Veterans Memorial Park on Monday, Veterans Day. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

The task force includes Mick Changelo, Justyna Babcock, Cheri Fisher, Joe Fisher, Nancy Hurteau, Donna Whitelaw and Kate Lynch-Lewis.

To read more about the creation of this park, go to tinyurl.com/uny9556u.