(Missourinet)– With a significant state grant in hand, the city is proceeding with work on a new war memorial with completion expected by Gold Star Day in September.
The Gold Star Memorial will go into the city’s Private Ryan J. Hill Memorial Park in Keizer Station.
“Families of fallen soldiers deserve a place to go to remember the sacrifice of their brothers, sisters, sons and daughters to help them deal with their grief,” according to the city’s application to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.
The city park was established to honor Hill, a Keizer native who was killed in Iraq in 2007 while serving with the U.S. Army
“Many of Ryan Hill’s schoolmates and family members still live in the area,” according to the city application.
The state agency in May awarded a grant for $84,195. The project is estimated to cost $144,195 and the city parks fund has contributed $10,000 while local fundraising efforts continue to raise another $45,000.
The project involves placing four granite monuments on a granite base “etched with both nationally and local etchings,” the city application said. Seven flag poles will be installed, one to hold the U.S. flag and the others will hold flags from Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Coast Guard and Space Force.
“His life continues to inspire us as well as help us remember that he, like the family members that our Gold Star Families loved and lost, was family, neighbor and friend, a reality check of humanity we must never lose sight of,” Mayor Cathy Clark said at the ceremony.
The city held a groundbreaking ceremony on April 26 – Hill’s birthday.
The Gold Star tradition dates to World War I, according to the U.S. Army. Families flew a service flag bearing a blue star for each family member serving. The blue star was replaced with a gold star when service member died.
“This allowed members of the community to know the price that the family had paid in the cause of freedom,” according to an Army website.
Congress in 1936 designated the last Sunday in September as Gold Star Mother’s Day. Then-President Barack Obama modified it to Gold Star Mother’s and Family Day in 2011.
This year, the day is observed on Sept. 28.
Besides the Keizer project, the state parks agency approved grants for a monument in Veterans Memorial Park in Stanfield, construction of a memorial gateway at the airport in Florence, and a Revolutionary War memorial in Beaverton’s Veterans Memorial Park.
on City’s mayor says the Gold Star Families Memorial Monument being built on the Missouri Capitol grounds is one of just five monuments located at state capitols nationwide.
Mayor Carrie Tergin spoke at this week’s Veterans Day groundbreaking ceremony, describing the spot as a perfect location.
“This is a place here on the beautiful Capitol grounds where thousands of people are going to be convening. So this very spot right here is going to have a lot of visibility,” Tergin says.
The monument is being built next to the Missouri Veterans Memorial and next to the Bicentennial bridge entrance. It will have four panels with themes of homeland, family, patriot and sacrifice.
“It’s a solemn area,” says Tergin. “It’s a place where many students come so they can learn the stories, learn what this is about and why this is so important that we always remember our Gold Star families.”
Fundraising efforts are continuing for the monument.
Gold Star families, veterans, state lawmakers and Jefferson City business leaders are leading the fundraising effort, and they’ve already raised about $30,000. It will cost $75,000 for the monument and granite benches.
The benches are being designed to give visitors an opportunity to reflect on the meanings of the four panels.
