By James FitzPatrick
Northfield and ACIT have teamed up to create a designated spot to honor Purple Heart recipients.
Students from the Atlantic County Institute of Technology were in Northfield Tuesday, May 10, to put the finishing touches on a designated space to honor Northfield military men and women that were wounded in service to their country.
Purple Heart Way is a newly landscaped section of the Walking Path at Veterans Park. It will be dedicated during a ceremony 11 a.m. Saturday, May 21.
ACIT students were there on a windy Tuesday morning to install the landscaping.
“City Engineer Rami Nassar arranged for students in the CAD class at ACIT to design and plant flowers and shrubs leading up to the All Wars Memorial,” said Deputy Municipal Clerk Shannon Campbell.
Students in the ACIT carpentry class will be completing a Purple Heart Way sign, to be installed by the Northfield Public Works Department, Campbell said. The sign will include a QR code, linking visitors to information about the park.
Those who scan the code will hear a history of the park, read by four-time Purple Heart recipient Marco Polo Smigliani, Vietnam War Marine Corps veteran and a member of the Atlantic County Veterans Advisory Board.
The student project is being completed under the direction of instructors Drew Holmes, a colleague of Nassar, Mike Kuharik and Amie Kleva.
Northfield was the first of two ACIT student stops of the day. When they were done in Northfield, they got on a bus bound for Somers Point to work on a similar project that has been under way there since the city renamed its entire bike path Purple Heart Way in 2017 and rededicated it in 2020.
Holmes, who teaches architectural design at ACIT, told Shore Local News that he encourages student/veteran interaction. Smigliani of Egg Harbor Township, and former helicopter pilot Allan Matthews of Northfield have visited the school to share their experiences.
Holmes said the Somers Point project came together during discussions with Somers Point Mayor Jack Glasser, who is also a security officer at ACIT. Somers Point was in the process of transforming its bike path into Purple Heart Way when the collaboration idea was born.
ACIT students would assist with landscaping and create signs, including QR codes linking to videos of local Purple Heart recipients telling their stories.
It would have been completed sooner, but like everything else, COVID got in the way so students who began the Somers Point project graduated before it was done. It wasn’t until May 10 that ACIT students made their final visit to the Somers Point site.
Holmes said the project would not have been possible without help from Brian Lacivita and Tom Piotrowski from the ACIT Media Department, who coordinated the veteran interviews and edited them down to a manageable length.
Established in 1782, the Purple Heart is the oldest military award that is still presented to American service members, according to the program prepared for the May 21 Northfield ceremony. The Purple Heart is presented to all ranks and was one of the first awards in military history to be given to lower-ranking and enlisted soldiers.
Northfield Purple Heart recipients include:
Anthony Bianca, United States Air Force, World War II; John Somers, Jr., United States Navy, World War II; William S. Bartholomew, United States Marines, World War lI; Harvey D. Johnson, United States Army Air Corps, World War II, killed in action; and Norman Thomas, World War II.
