Dedication of Veteran’s Memorial Flag Plaza at Blackwater UMC

Submitted by Jeff Sibley
    The dedication of the Flag Plaza at Blackwater United Methodist Church was done on May 26th by the raising of an American Flag flown at the request of Congressman Bill Cassidy over our Nation’s Capital in memory of Mr. Wilson Beard.  
    The flag plaza was an idea conceived by some of the Boy Scouts that meet in the scout hut adjacent to the new memorial.  For years this was the location of a rose garden that Mr. Beard built and maintained for the community.  It may be that Mr. Beard wanted to make the world a little more beautiful that the world he saw during his service in WWII. As a member of the 156th Infantry ,and seeing action at places like Normandy, I can understand his dedication to a peaceful place of beauty.
    After Mr. Beard passed away in 2006, the rose garden fell into disarray and, by the end of last year, when the scouts decided to take on the repurposing of this area, it was a welcome proposal.
    In September of last year, Life Scout Gabriel Sibley proposed a Veterans Memorial Flag Plaza to the church trustees as his Eagle Scout project. The plan was to remove the remainder of the rose garden, mostly overgrown weeds at this point, form up and pour a 28’ x 36’ foot concrete slab with two 20 foot flag poles on one end, and leave an un-poured area on the other side for a future flag retirement fire pit, which will be done as a separate Eagle Scout project.
    The cost of the project was funded by generous donations from the community and support of local businesses, like Pat’s Home Center, selling the Boy Scouts materials at cost. On the day of the concrete pour, drivers from the concrete company, Kévin Villon and Jamie Tuaner, stayed to help the boys with a successful pour. In fact Kévin stayed until after dark! The project was also blessed by Rev. Simmons, who dropped by to see what the boys were doing and finished the concrete handicap ramp that none of us knew how to accomplish.
    After the dedication, Gabriel Sibley, along with James Hammond, received their Eagle Scout rank in a Court of Honor at Blackwater United Methodist Church.