BUCKHANNON – North Kanawha Street businesses are celebrating the holidays by honoring local heroes Saturday, Dec. 11.

Baxa Motel owner Jerry Henderson attended the virtual Nov. 30 Consolidated Public Works Board meeting to discuss the details of the Old-Fashioned Salute to Hometown Heroes event, slated for 3- 7 p.m. that day.

“The businesses on North Kanawha were planning to try to do an October event to call attention to the renovation of the street by the city department, and as we were planning, we ran short on time and all of a sudden, plans were being made for Christmas,” Henderson said. “We decided to just add our event to that one and promote North Kanawha shopping destination, as we have some 16 businesses on North Kanawha Street.”

Each business on North Kanawha will decorate their windows in honor of a local hero.

“We are putting ‘Hometown Heroes’ as our focus, so it will be an ‘Old-Fashioned Salute to Hometown Heroes,’ and the different businesses will take their front windows, and they will be in support of a hometown hero, which we decided with BURMA (the Buckhannon-Upshur Retail Merchants Association,” Henderson said. “They will all be people in our community who are doing things through the Christmas holidays to keep our city running, as they do all year and really go unnoticed because it’s just their job to do.”

The businesses will be focusing on military personnel, small business owners, police officers, medical staff, teachers and others.

“We are asking the Street Department to hang the banner we are having made, and we will utilize the old wreaths on the poles, which the city Street Department has already done for us,” Henderson said. “The hours will be 3 to 7 p.m., it will be on Dec. 11, and we will have store specials, music, Santa, hot drinks, cookies, handouts, kids’ games with prizes and more.”

Board member Pam Bucklew said the event seemed well thought-out for the holidays.

“I personally think it’s a great idea to focus on that new area because we’re doing a lot of work down there, and I appreciate what BURMA and all the members have been doing down there,” Bucklew said.

In other news, the Consolidated board also approved an event request for the Seventh Day Adventist Church Christmas caroling campaign.