Bay Village Foundation bronze plaque makes a great holiday gift and remembrance

The holidays are a great time to step back from our busy lives, reflect on the past year and set goals for the future. It’s an opportunity to spend time with family and friends and celebrate long-standing traditions and also introduce new ones.

I was walking along the Cahoon Park trail enjoying the unseasonably warm weather and thinking about the upcoming holiday season. When I reached the T. Richard Martin footbridge, I stopped to read the names commemorated on the bronze plaques there. It occurred to me that this would be a wonderful way to celebrate family, while at the same time giving back to the community.

When honoring someone with a bronze plaque, families make a gift of $2,500 to The Bay Village Foundation, and then work with the Foundation to produce an appropriate card or announcement to be given to the recipient during the holidays or other special occasion.

Each Memorial Day, the Foundation hosts a public ceremony celebrating those who have been honored by friends and family with a bronze plaque. The plaques are engraved with personalized text and are installed on the T. Richard Martin Footbridge in Cahoon Memorial Park. The Memorial Day program is a beautiful outdoor service featuring the String Ensemble of Bay High School and television personality Jon Loufman, who serves as emcee for the annual event. 

The public is invited to attend the Memorial Day program that takes place following the Bay Village Parade and Veterans Memorial Service.

I hope Bay residents will consider initiating a new holiday tradition by purchasing a bronze plaque. All contributions to The Bay Village Foundation are used to support grants to Bay Village organizations, and scholarships for Bay high school seniors. All of the awards serve the Foundation’s mission of helping to make Bay an even better place to live, work and play.  

For more information about the Bronze Plaque program, call Foundation trustee Eileen Vernon at 440-835-2243 or visit the Foundation’s website at www.thebayvillagefoundation.org. The deadline for ordering a bronze plaque for Memorial Day 2018 is March 31, 2018.