Blue Star marker dedicated

The Snufftown Garden Club dedicated its Blue Star Memorial Marker at the Northern New Jersey Veterans Cemetery in Sparta on June 24.

The club worked with the Garden Club of New Jersey and the state Department of Transportation on the project.

It is the second marker in Sussex County. The first was placed at the New Jersey State Fair/Sussex County Farm and Horse Show grounds by the Sussex County Garden Club in 2022.

In 1944, the New Jersey Council of Garden Clubs established a Blue and Gold Star Memorial Marker program to honor veterans of all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. The next year, the program was expanded by the National Council of State Garden Clubs into a Blue Star Highway system.

Adopted by individual states, these markers are now found throughout the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii.

Attending the dedication were Beverly Kazickas, president of the Garden Club of New Jersey (GCNJ); Joan Cichalski, GCNJ Blue Star chairwoman; and Lois Johan, state Department of Transportation landscape project wngineer.

The keynote address was given by John Harrigan, president of the Northern New Jersey Veterans Cemetery and president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1002, the group that spearheaded the creation of the cemetery.

The benediction and invocation were given by Vernon Mayor Howard Burrell, a trustee of the Hamburg Baptist Church.

During the ceremony, club president Rose Wolverton said plans are under way for the Snufftown Garden Club to sponsor a Gold Star Marker in the lower section of the cemetery.

The Gold Star Marker is a way to honor and remember those who lost their lives in service to the country through the armed forces. The name comes from the custom of families of fallen service members to hang a service flag with a gold star in the window of their homes.

The club hopes to install and dedicate the Gold Star marker this fall. It would be the first Gold Star Marker in the county.