By Gail Geraghty

Staff Writer

STOLEN — Walk of Honor bricks at Harrison VFW.

HARRISON — Police are looking for information on whoever stole an entire pallet of 4”-x-8” red bricks intended for use in the local VFW Post’s ongoing “Walk of Honor” project. The bricks were to be used as filler alongside lazer-engraved bricks comprising walkways both at the Ronald St. John Post #9328 and at the Harrison Library’s Veterans Memorial.

“Times have to be pretty tough when someone has to steal the bricks for a veterans’ walk of honor,” said Muffett Crowell, who chairs the post’s Walk of Honor Committee. The pallet, containing between $150-$200 worth of bricks, was stored at the edge of the post’s property on the Waterford Road.

To add insult to injury, the theft occurred right after Memorial Day, although Crowell wasn’t sure of exactly which day. She said the thieves must have seen the bricks as easy pickings, being unprotected and set back from the road as they were. Town Manager George “Bud” Finch said Harrison’s regular patrol officer for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department wasn’t on duty when the theft occurred. He is encouraging anyone with information about who may have taken the bricks to call the Harrison Town Office at 583-2241.

“Somebody takes a whole pallet-load of bricks, it isn’t like they took one brick. Somebody must have seen something,” Finch said.

The Walk of Honor project, begun by Crowell Memorial Day 2011, has been hugely successful, raising around $18,000 for the post thus far, with donations still coming in. “We just put in another half dozen (engraved bricks) down in the Village,” she said. The bricks, ranging in cost from $75 to $125, are intended to memorialize a veteran (or veterans), acknowledge active duty members and memorialize or acknowledge anyone. Along with the 4”-x-8” bricks, there are also 8”-x-8” brick tiles that can be engraved, along with larger granite blocks once in place at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Walk of Honor project coincided with a community-wide effort to save the post, which was in danger of closing because of declining enrollment and lack of funds. With the strong support from the Ladies Auxiliary, as well as volunteer labor and donated materials for renovations, the post has returned to vibrancy, and routinely hosts public suppers, breakfasts and other events. On Saturday, June 23, the post will host the area’s first annual Lake Region Business and Consumer Expo.

Others with information or questions may also call Crowell at 809-4605.