Blue Star Marker Dedication Today in Toccoa

Stephens County will receive a Blue Star Memorial Marker later today.

A dedication ceremony for the marker, which is being placed at the Stephens County Historical Museum, will be at 2 p.m. today at the historic train depot on Alexander Street in downtown Toccoa.

Organizing the ceremony is the Horti-Floral Garden Club.

The Blue Star Memorial Marker is a tribute to all members, past, present, and future, of the armed forces of the United States of America.

According to the website of the National Garden Clubs Inc., it began with the planting of 8,000 dogwood trees by the New Jersey Council of Garden Clubs in 1944 as a living memorial to veterans of World War II.

The website goes on to say that in 1945, the National Council of State Garden Clubs adopted the program and began a Blue Star Highway system that covers thousands of miles across the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Since then, the program has expanded to include all men and women who had served, were serving, or would serve in the armed services and memorial markers and by-way markers were added to highway markers, to be used at locations like national cemeteries, parks, veteran’s facilities, and gardens.

Today’s ceremony is scheduled to include comments from a representative of the Garden Club of Georgia, Toccoa Mayor Terry Carter, Stephens County Historical Society Director Brenda Carlan, and Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce President Julie Paysen.

Again, today’s Blue Star Memorial Marker dedication in Stephens County is at 2 p.m. today at the train depot on Alexander Street in downtown Toccoa.