Rememberance Tree honors those who serve

For several years a Christmas tree has adorned the lobby of the Washington County Courthouse. The tree contains ornaments with photos of service men and women from the county or who have relatives in the county. Washington County Assessor Lil Perry began the tradition in 2006 and said she would love for volunteers to come forward to continue the tradition.

The tree in the courthouse is known as the ?Remembrance Tree.? Perry said she got the idea to do a remembrance tree from the Jefferson County Courthouse.

?Jefferson County had a huge tree and it had a lot of tags and photos of people in the military,? she said. ?It was a way to remember that those people were in the military. You always tell people ?I?ll pray for your son,? or ?I?ll pray for this person,? but you don?t remember to do it. This was a reminder that we should honor these people and not just at Christmas but all the time.?

Perry asked for photos and information about local soldiers through The Washington Evening Journal and through the National Guard. Perry said whatever information the family wanted on the ornament she put on.

?We tried to make copies of everyone?s photo so we could give the originals back,? she said.

Perry said there were between 50 and 60 names on the Remembrance Tree its first year. She said that some soldiers? photos have fake names on their ornaments to protect their identities.  

?Someone might look at this person and say, ?They don?t even exist,?? Perry said. ?Well, that may be because they?re in special forces. I want them to be on the tree but I don?t want to get them in trouble. I don?t know if that?s a rule in the military but it?s something we do for their own protection.?

Perry said she followed the same policy of the TV show ?Dragnet,? which was that she changed the names to protect the innocent.

The Remembrance Tree has not been updated the past few years to reflect the current roster of local people in the military. Perry said the task of updating the tree is time-consuming and hopes that someone who has free time will step forward to do it.

?Next year, maybe we?ll get a volunteer to take the project on,? she said. ?You may not think it takes much time but when people bring in pictures, they want to tell you about their soldier. That?s good, but it takes a little time and it would be better if it were done by a volunteer.?

Perry said that when she started the tree, she intended it to be for active duty service members. However, she said that if a volunteer comes along who wants to do something different, such as honoring veterans as well, she would welcome that.

?Depending on the volunteer, they could expand it to both current soldiers and veterans,? she said. ?If they wanted to display different pictures from different wars, they could do that, too.?

The first year the tree was on display Perry received e-mails from soldiers who saw it over Christmas.

?They really appreciated the fact that we thought about them, and it was an honor to have their pictures on the tree,? she said.

Perry said that sending care packages to soldiers during the holidays is a nice gesture. She said many care packages go to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., where wounded soldiers stay.

Perry said that it would be a good idea to display the decorations at more holidays than just Christmas. She said that if a volunteer wanted to take over the project, he or she should get the approval of the board of supervisors first. She said the assessor?s office could still help the volunteers.