A park at Keizer Station is now home to the 154th Gold Star Families Memorial Monument, an initiative started by Medal of Honor recipient Woody Williams.
The monuments serve as reminders of the sacrifices made by both those who gave their lives defending our freedom and their loved ones left behind, known as Gold Star families.
The Keizer monument is the first in Oregon and may be the first in the nation incorporating sand from Iwo Jima.
The Battle of Iwo Jima is where Williams earned his Medal of Honor, serving as a demolition sergeant with the 21st Marines, 3rd Marine Division. Each monument includes a granite panel with a sandblasted engraving of the iconic image of the raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi.
Keizer organizers leveraged their military contacts to acquire a small vial of black sand from the island’s volcanic beaches and scattered the sand into the base adhesive during installation.
The monument will be dedicated at 11 a.m. Feb. 7 at Pfc. Ryan J. Hill Memorial Park on Keizer Station Boulevard next to the Kaiser Permanente medical office.
Hill, from Keizer, died in 2007 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Baghdad. The park was dedicated in his name in 2013.
Gold Star Families, including Hill’s mother, presented the idea of a local memorial to the Keizer Parks and Recreation Advisory Board in June 2024.
The parks board took it to the Keizer City Council, which gave its approval that October. More than $25,000 had been raised by then for the project.
“Keizer’s a special community,” said Matt Lawyer, a Navy veteran and chair of the parks board. “When we decide to get behind something, it happens quickly.”
The total cost of the project is estimated at $150,000. More than half was covered by a Veterans and War Memorial Grant from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, with additional grants from the city of Keizer and Home Depot.
More than 800 hours of volunteer time were logged at the monument site, including the removal of a former park fountain. Salem Electric donated materials and labor for lighting.
New concrete was poured, and a row of flags representing the six branches of the U.S. military was added.
The 16-foot-long, two-sided tribute features four panels made of black granite and is now the centerpiece of the 1.3-acre park, replacing an old fountain.
At the center of the 7-foot-tall monument is a silhouette of a saluting service member, representing the legacy of the loved ones who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
Keizer’s monument is oriented so that the silhouette casts a shadow when the sun rises and sets.
All Gold Star families monuments have standard design features as outlined by the Woody Williams Foundation, with panels representing homeland, family, patriotism and sacrifice.
Each host community gets to customize the homeland panel. Keizer’s monument includes the city’s logo and a silhouette of Oregon.
The Woody Williams Foundation, based in Louisville, Kentucky, carries out the vision of the late Hershel Woodrow “Woody” Williams. He died in 2022 after dedicating his life to advocating for veterans and Gold Star families.
The foundation has helped establish 154 monuments nationwide, with more than 40 more underway. The first was installed in 2013 in Williams’ home state of West Virginia.
The term Gold Star family is a modern reference to service flags first flown by families during World War I. The flag included a blue star for every immediate family member serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. If a loved one died, the blue star was replaced with a gold star.
In 1936, Congress designated the last Sunday in September as Gold Star Mother’s Day, which was later expanded to include families.
Several Gold Star families from Oregon and out of state are expected to attend the dedication ceremony.
