Polk County Burial Honor Guard seeks community help

Published 2:31 pm Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Polk County Memorial Honor Guard was formed more than eight years ago to provide a proper military funeral ceremony for veterans in our area. The honor guard also often leads and carries the colors (U.S. flag) for area parades and festivals.

Members of the American Legion Post #250 in Tryon and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post # 9116 in Columbus and Post #10349 in Mills Spring volunteer their time to form this honor guard unit.

The honor guard members are committed to performing their duties in a dignified and respectful manner. This includes wearing appropriate attire.

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Members are currently working to raise funds to purchase military style dress pants, shirts with shoulder epaulets, appropriate patches and cords, dress jackets, gloves, belts, boots and caps. The total cost to outfit 12 members is more than $5,000.  Through a variety of projects, the honor guard unit has raised approximately $2,500 of this cost.

In preparation for the upcoming Sept. 11 anniversary, the honor guard unit borrowed $1,000 to supplement their available funds and placed an order for most of the needed uniform components. Currently, the funds are insufficient to order the jackets.

The honor guard unit is asking for help in order to reach this goal. If you would like to make a contribution to this effort, please send donations to: Polk County Post #250 of the American Legion, Inc., “Honor Guard Donation, 20 Hampton Court, Columbus, N.C. 28722.

Polk County Post #250 is a 50l(3)c non-profit organization. All donations are tax deductible.