CATAWISSA, Pa. — More than 300 hundred faces of young men and one woman fill the stained and discolored pages of a souvenir program. Assumed to be made just after World War II, it's a piece of history found by accident in the attic of the Catawissa Bottling Company in Columbia County.
"We happen to find this box of all these papers that probably my grandmother put away," Stephen Gregorowicz said." We started rooting through and said, well, maybe this stuff should get thrown out, but then I discovered this book."
Titled "In Memory of our Honored Dead," the now-tattered program gives the names of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, along with their hometown, rank, and cause of death.
Gregorowicz, the plant manager, says he's never seen anything like it. That's why he wanted to get it in the hands of the right person.
"Our (VFW) Post is called Harman and Allen Post 8306 here in Catawissa. He died in England. There are men in there from Danville, Berwick, Bloomsburg, Mount Carmel, Nescopeck, Shickshinny," said Mark Schlieder, an Air Force veteran and chaplain of the post.
Schlieder worked for more than a year to get the booklet remade, a task he took pride in.
"My reaction was, we have to reprint this, and we have to get it out because there are people that will want to see it."
Just a few days before Memorial Day, Schlieder received the newest 100 copies of the program, giving the next generation a chance to look back and appreciate the sacrifice made by those so long ago.
"Younger generations need to understand their sacrifice that was made for our generations. And they need to continue remembering and honoring the sacrifice that they gave."
Schlieder says copies of the souvenir program and the original will be available at the VFW post in Catawissa.