For the first few years of his life, Richard Winters of the famed "Band of Brothers" of World War II, lived in the New Holland area.

So it is fitting that New Holland has become the first location in Lancaster County where one can donate toward a Richard Winters statue in France.

Steve Loewen, owner of the New Holland Radio Shack and president of the town's historical society, has made the bracelets available in his store at 331 E. Main St.

The rubber, olive-green bracelets with Winters' favorite saying "Hang Tough" stamped onto them, require a minimum donation of $1 each.

The bracelets are the project of 11-year-old Jordan Brown, a fourth-grader at South Lebanon Elementary School. An article about the boy's project appeared in the Intelligencer Journal/ Lancaster New Era and grabbed Loewen's interest.

"When I was younger I watched the 'World At War' series and 'Victory At Sea' and all of those," Loewen said. "And when I read about the boy from Lebanon trying to sell bracelets to help raise funds for the statue, I thought, 'if I can help by selling them here, I'll do it.' "

Loewen, who is confined to a wheelchair, can't hold a book to read it. But when he first saw the "Band of Brothers" HBO mini-series on TV, he became "very enthralled" about Winters and the men of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

In 2004, he attended what was Winters final, major public speaking appearance, at Donegal High School.

"So I'm a real Dick Winters fan," Loewen said.

Loewen's appreciation of veterans grew from being around his grandfather, Wayne Ranck, a World War I veteran who helped found the New Holland American Legion and was, Loewen said, "a big veterans guy in town."

"Through being around him and others, I developed a real appreciation for what the veterans have done for the country," Loewen said.

Loewen has done minimal advertising other than mentioning the bracelets on his sign in front of the store and having a small sign on the store counter. Mostly, he said, they sell themselves.

"Everyone who comes in and reads the sign buys one," he said.

The statue is the idea of documentary filmmaker Tim Gray of Rhode Island, who hopes to raise $400,000 for the project, which will include a documentary to be aired on a national cable channel.

The statue will be located in St. Marie-du-Mont, a town in Normandy, France, that Winters and his paratroopers helped liberate on June 6, 1944. It's about three miles inland from Utah Beach.

While the statue will depict Winters, it also will honor all U.S. Army officers who led soldiers into combat on D-Day.

lalexander@lnpnews.com