Finishing touches to cap off $80,000 Harrison Honor Roll project

Janice Friel-Kaufman grew up in Harrison in an ardent military family.

Her father was an Army lieutenant; one uncle was a Navy bombardier who was shot down over the Pacific; another uncle was a Marine Corps pilot who flew the first rescue missions into Okinawa. There were several others.

“I can remember being 3 years old, hanging out with my dad at Potts Manor (site of McDonald’s today), where the VFW Post was located,” Friel-Kaufman said.

“We would go nearly every Sunday, and I was surrounded by family talking about their love for this country.”

Friel-Kaufman strives to carry on paying tribute to the military through efforts like her recent donation of wreaths to the Harrison Honor Roll.

Just before the holidays, Friel-Kaufman, now a resident of Hermitage, Mercer County, paid for eight wreaths to be hung at the monument along Freeport Road.

It was the perfect touch to beautify the site after a yearslong renovation project that is scheduled to wrap up in the spring.

More than $80,000 has been poured into the 77-year-old monument that recognizes the township’s World War II veterans. The black granite memorial is etched with nearly 2,000 names.

“The major stuff is done,” committee member Bill Rudolph said. “We have some minor work in the spring to finish it up. We’ve never had water over there, so we’re gonna try to run a line to be able to hose things down.”

Landscaping will take place once the weather breaks.

Money was raised through the sale of military banners that hang from utility poles throughout the township.

The memorial, at the busy intersection of Freeport and Springhill roads, dates to October 1945, when it was unveiled as a project of the “Mothers and Wives of Servicemen of Harrison Township.”

“You had to live here when the war was going on to be on it,” Rudolph said. “They got a committee of wives and mothers and organized to get money to build it. Total cost was less than $5,000.”

Through the years, repairs have included new lighting and glass, with names painted in gold leaf.

In 2020, 10 slabs of thick granite replaced the original glass panels that were water damaged.

Names were engraved to make them more readable and easier to preserve. Two benches also were placed at the memorial for visitors.

The lighting for the monument was donated by Schaedler Yesco, an electrical supply company planning to open a new distribution center in the old JCPenney building in Lower Burrell later this year.

This past fall, crews poured a new concrete foundation at the site, and three new flagpoles were installed.

“We’ve spent years on this,” Rudolph said. “It was falling down. It was ready to collapse.”

Rudolph said keeping up appearances has been important for many people in town.

He credited the initial efforts to the late Clayton Falkner — a lifelong township resident known as Mr. Birdville — who believed it was a matter of respect to repair the crumbling memorial.

“He pestered the township board until they agreed,” Rudolph said. “A committee was formed in the middle of the pandemic, and we’ve spent three years working on it.”

Friel-Kaufman said that despite living 70 miles away, it was natural for her to donate wreaths. She said she would like to repeat the effort next year and add decor to the memorials in Natrona and West Natrona, a neighborhood that some call “Ducktown.”

“It kind of means everything to me,” she said.