Carrie Jones

Nov 10, 2025

BAR HARBOR—Every year on November 11 at 11 a.m., officials lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

“The ceremony is intended to honor and thank all who served in the United States Armed Forces,” according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Bar Harbor is a long way from D.C., but the Bar Harbor Garden Club (BHGC) also honors veterans on the holiday, also at 11 a.m. with its annual Blue Star Memorial Marker Ceremony on Route 3, Bar Harbor.

Laying a wreath, speaking words, remember, are all meant to “honor America’s veterans for their patriotism and pay tribute to our service men and women,” the club has said.

It’s also meant to offer healing and hope “through the remembrance of our living and fallen heroes,” according to the club.

Bar Harbor Garden Club member Jim Linnane said that Veterans Day is celebrated at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month because that’s when the armistice ending World War I took effect. Armistice Day became Veterans Day to honor the veterans of all conflicts and to thank them and their families for their service and their sacrifice.

Chris White, a U.S. Army veteran and Birch Bay resident recited “In Flanders Fields” last year. Tom McIntyre read Max Coots’ “Garden Meditations.” James Mroch read a poem about military mothers.

In the United States, 6.1% of the adult population is veterans, 15.8 million people. Approximately 28% of those veterans have served since 9/11. Less than 0.2% served in World War II.

During World War I and World War II, families that had a member serving would hang a banner with a blue star to indicate that. When World War II came to an end, New Jersey garden clubs and the New Jersey state highway commission began a living memorial, planting on highways to honor returning troops. That was adopted by Maine’s Federation of Garden Clubs in 1946, Linnane said.

“The BHGC’s Blue Star Memorial Marker was originally erected in 1972 as a tribute and an expression of thanks, respect and remembrance, to all men and women who had served, were serving, or would serve in the armed forces of the United States,” according to a BHGC press release last year.

BHGC’s Blue Star Memorial Marker was initially near the former Sonogee Nursing Home and moved to the head of the island location in 2005. The BHGC has planted dogwoods at the site. Member Jan McIntyre planted native Maine lupines.

“Garden clubs nationwide believe in a living memorial, preferring to help beautify and preserve the country these men and women had fought for, rather than build stone monuments in their honor. Since World War I, a Blue Star Banner displayed in the window of a home told others that a family member was serving in the Armed Forces. Based on this legacy, the Blue Star Memorial Program began in 1944 with the planting of Dogwood trees as a living memorial to Veterans of World War II,” the club wrote.

The Bar Harbor Congregational Church at 29 Mt. Desert Street in Bar Harbor will also have a service of prayer and song on Tuesday, beginning at 11 a.m. It was meant to be a time to acknowledge the service and sacrifice of veterans and their families. It is also available on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82007943343

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File Photos: Shaun Farrar/Bar Harbor Story. Pieces of this story were previously published last year.

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