Click here to subscribe today or Login.
PLYMOUTH — To the world, Charles Steinhauer issued a standing invitation to visit the memorial in his backyard honoring the service of 162 veterans who grew up in the hillside neighborhood he’s called home for the past 21 years.
The 1,100-pound bronze monument replaced the wooden one ravaged by time and was dedicated Saturday to those of Plymouth’s 12th Ward who served during World War II, including five men killed in the line of duty.
“Anybody can come any time they want,” Steinhauer said, encouraging visitors to touch the monument, lay flowers at it and, most of all, remember the names of the veterans.
He and his June, who moved into the house at 445 Second St. more than two decades ago, and Son Ae Filchak, a former neighbor across the street, humbly accepted certificates of appreciation from state and local officials in appreciation of their efforts. Filchak, a native of South Korea whose former husband David was a U.S. Air Force recruiter, covered the $25,000 cost of the replica.
“We really enjoy when we see people visit and people remembering because it’s so easy to forget about the past. Hopefully this will cause this to live on in this neighborhood,” Steinhauer told the crowd of approximately 75 people inside the American Legion Shawnee Post 463 on Center Street. The ceremony took place indoors due to the rain.
Steinhauer, a veteran, spoke of caring for the 1940s era monument as if it was alive and the emotional connection to it. “We were hurting because it was hurting,” he said.
Filchak first stepped in to help in 1988 and returned last year to join with the Steinhauers and others on creating a more lasting replica of the Memorial Honor Roll.
“I cannot imagine, I’m so surprised when I reached out to the community — they never said, ‘No,’” Filchak said.
After 17 months of work, she said, she and the Steinhauers “became brother and sisters.”
Those kinds of bonds last and ensure memories don’t fade and monuments don’t decay. They also provide support for the men and women in the nation’s armed forces, said Brig. Gen. George Schwartz, assistant adjutant general of the Pennsylvania National Guard. He represented Gov. Tom Wolf at the ceremony.
Schwartz deviated from his original address on service members. “Instead, I’d like to talk just briefly about what it takes to serve. And really, what it takes to serve is knowing that we have the love and support of our families and our communities,” Schwartz said.
State Reps. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, Gerald Mullery, D-Newport Township, and Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, and Plymouth Mayor Dorothy Petrosky offered comments.
Yudichak, the last of the elected officials to speak, reinforced the importance of familial and community bonds, especially in small towns and neighborhoods. He thanked the Steinhauers and Filchak “for never forgetting about those boys” who went to war.
He distinguished between monuments that preserve the names of those who served and the people who preserve monuments such as the Honor Roll.
“Those who care for monuments really reflect the community’s gratitude for those, particularly in this case, those 162 boys who took up arms to rid the world of tyranny,” he said. “They came home victorious and, because they did, we live in a free and prosperous nation.”
