Do you know a loved one, relative or friend currently serving in the military? Do you know someone who has served the U.S. in the past? Do you have a photograph of that person? If so, Tom Peacock, general manager of Columbia Ancillary Services, Inc. and his staff want the picture to start a huge window display in front of their offices in downtown Tyrone to show hometown support for military members in this uncertain time of world turmoil.
“The idea is just so the people in the area realize how many people are going to be affected by what’s going to happen in the next couple of weeks in our area,” said Peacock. “Friends, family, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, boyfriends, girlfriends- they all deserve the recognition before it all happens.
“If it doesn’t happen, as everybody is hoping that it doesn’t, it would be nice that these men and women that are going to put their lives on the line deserve recognition before the fact as opposed to waiting until after something happens.”
Peacock and his staff thought of the idea to display military photos in their window because many of their loved ones are being called away or could be called away very soon because of the continued uncertainties between the U.S. and Iraq. Employee Mark Caldwell’s son, Jonathan Caldwell of the Army is getting ready for deployment. Peacock’s niece, Holly Massey is also in the Army, and Peacock has a picture of her meeting President Bush hanging up in his office.
The purpose of the window display is to get the community involved in supporting the members of the military.
“I know there are mixed emotions and opinions, but all politics aside, it just shows how many people it’s going to affect in this area. One picture probably has ties to 50 people,” said Peacock.
The idea for the display is that there are two windows in front of Columbia Ancillary Services, Inc., and one will be used for members of the military currently serving, and one will be used for members of the military who served in the past. It really depends on the response of the community and how many pictures the staff receives. Also, the window display will be lit up at night so that it can be viewed at all hours of the day.
“As soon as we can get pictures in with people’s names, what branch of service they’re in, how long they’ve been there, then we’re going to start displaying in our windows,” said Peacock. “There’s 42 feet of window out there, and we’ll fill it all up if we can get enough pictures.”
Anyone interested can either mail a picture to: Columbia Ancillary Services, Inc., 1057 Pennsylvania Ave., Tyrone, PA 16686, or drop it off at their office at the same address. The contact number is 1-800-475-4425. The size of the picture does not matter. The information to include with the photo is: name of military member, branch of service and length of service time. Mark “return” and include a name and address, and the staff will return the photo after the display is over.
Peacock hopes that the window display will bring the community closer together, and he hopes that the photos come from all over Blair, Centre, Clearfield, Huntingdon and surrounding counties. He will start displaying the photos as soon as they start coming in.
“It will stay up as long as we’re getting support from the community and the people that want to see it,” said Peacock.
