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The Web site at [www.chesco.org/heroes] is expected to be used as a learning tool for teachers and students throughout the county school districts.
Members of the Hall of Heroes education committee, an outgrowth of the service club, have prepared information packets to be distributed to educators to encourage them to involve their students in the project.
The service club and local historians reached a major milestone in 1999, when the Hall of Heroes was unveiled at the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester.
"There was already a World War I memorial in the courthouse," said club president Jerry Schneider of New London. "We thought it would be great to have a monument that recognized local soldiers who died in World War II, Korea and Vietnam."
In all, 585 Chester County natives lost their lives in those three armed conflicts. Their names permanently line the walls of the special exhibit inside the courthouse.
"Our next project was how to reach kids with information about those soldiers," said Schneider. "We wanted to bring those names to life by telling the stories of the people that are on the wall."
The education committee was formed with historians, active and retired educators and dignitaries like Chester County Commissioner Andrew Dinniman and current West Chester Mayor Dick Yoder.
"We kicked around a lot of ideas on how to reach kids," said Schneider. "We discussed sponsoring school trips for students to take a tour of the hall and creating curriculum projects."
However, the committee settled on a Hall of Heroes Web site that would list the names of all the soldiers honored on the monument.
The Web project soon became the focus of the group as the county commissioners provided access to the Chester County site as a launchpad.
The Heroes Web site is now up and running based on a design implemented by Web artist Dave Williams.
Rather than simply listing the names of the veterans, the committee and more specifically historian Don Wambold set about doing research on the individuals.
Wambold dug up information on 18 area soldiers and met with their surviving family members in order to create a fuller image of the people and re-establish links between the community and the veterans who sacrificed their lives for it.
The committee hopes that area high school students embark on a similar exercise as a senior project or part of a history or government class activity.
As students do research on the soldiers and submit biographies, the information will be posted on the Web site under the name of their specific service person. The biographer also gets a by-line on the Web page.
According to Schneider, teachers from all over the county have been invited to the dinner ceremony and families for six of the war veterans will speak about their deceased kinsmen and the heroes project. Living veterans, including former state senatorial candidate and ex-marine pilot Hank Detering, will also be honored during the ceremony.
Chester County educators in attendance will be offered a list of all the servicemen and women from their respective school districts along with instructions on how students can conduct interviews with a few examples courtesy of Wambold.
"We welcome any participation," said Schneider. "Anybody is welcome to get in on it."
Schneider assures that the only reason for the project is to familiarize area children with those that came before them and those that made sacrifices for their freedom.
"I hope they wonder how many books were never written or how many of those soldiers may have become county commissioners," said Schneider. "I hope they realize that these were actual people with dreams and aspirations, just like them."
