We still have room in our current flight of pavers. If you, or someone you know wishes to honor a veteran, living or dead, we continue to expand our memorial pavers project in the plaza. Ideally, an additional five paver orders would round out the next installation phase. The cost is $ 500, which includes engraving & installation. You will find the order form on the Post web site. Cut and past the link below in your browser.
If you, or someone you know wishes to honor a veteran, living
or dead, we continue to expand our memorial pavers project in the plaza.
Ideally, an additional five paver orders would round out the next
installation phase. The cost is $ 500, which includes engraving &
installation.
The order form is reproduced below. Send your order by mail
to VFW Post 8870, PO Box 701, Edmonds, WA 98020, with your check made out
to the Post. You can also bring your order and check to the Post meeting
and hand it to Jim Traner.
Orders
are now being taken for a new group of pavers which will be installed in
the area around the information Kiosk.
A
production order will be placed shortly, so if you wish to honor a veteran
in this way, get your order in as soon as possible.
The
order form is reproduced below. Send your order by mail to VFW Post 8870,
PO Box 701, Edmonds, WA 98020, with your check made out to the Post. You
can also bring your order and check to the Post meeting and hand it
to Jim Traner.
Please note that his particular round of orders is
for pavers only.
Once again Memorial Day was not quite our expected event. The Edmonds Cemetery Board conducted a drive through event and handed out poppies to those in attendance, during which they collected $ 140 for our Relief Fund. Many thanks to our friends on the Cemetery Board.
In the afternoon of Memorial Day, the post held a brief ceremony at the Edmonds Veterans Plaza, attended mostly by members and their families The primary purpose was to dedicate a new group of memorial pavers to be installed near the information Kiosk at the southeast corner of the Plaza. (The City has yet to actually install these pavers due to COVID staffing issues)
Colors were held, of course, and Chaplain Dan Doyle, after an introduction by Jim Traner, delivered a brief speech honoring our fallen comrades.
Many thanks to Buglers Chris Edwards and Debbie Dawson for once again providing their excellent “echo” rendition of Taps, always a moving experience.
You are reminded that The Edmonds Veterans Plaza kiosk is now loaded with the veterans’ basic information excerpted from the memorialized pavers and benches. Some of the veterans dedicated also have provided additional information and photos. You can go to the plaza and check to see if you, your friend or family member is showing up. The Memorial ID and the map on the screen can help users to locate their pavers, etc.
The team will continue the effort to add more information and edit if needed. Please see the online version of the kiosk here (In other words, you can do the checking from your home remotely, too!): http://tribute-kiosk-software.com/ edmonds/
You are welcome to fill out one of the forms below. Or send the veterans’ information and photos to [email protected]. Also use the same email to correct the existing information on the kiosk. See the form below for what types of information we can use. Although ideal, it doesn’t have to be complete.
Please select one of the Forms below and use its link.
Form A: For those who have a Google account**. Only Google account holder can upload photos directly from the form. Prepare the photos (Read Photo Specification*) and start the form below. —> https://forms.gle/HXNLN8AoGuJWtW4G7
• Form B: For those who do not or wish to have a Google account. We will send a separate email requesting photos later. Please go ahead and fill the form below. —> https://forms.gle/1iqMkSoaPUHfzo8H9
* Either way, you will be requested (but not required) to provide up to 2 photos. *Photo specification: Ideally optimized for 400w X 500h in pixels at 72 DPI and JPG (.jpg) format is preferred (up to 10 MB per photo in size allowed). You may want to start preparing them before you start filling the form. If you do not know how to do these, do not worry but go ahead and upload photos as they are.
Our usual Memorial Day observance at the Edmonds Memorial Cemetery will not be held this year because of COVID crowding concerns, but VFW Post 8870, with American Legion Post 66 will conduct a small Memorial Day Ceremony at the Edmonds Veterans Plaza at 1:00 pm on Monday, May 31. We will be recognizing the installation of sixteen new veterans’ pavers at the ceremony, perhaps including yours. Due to COVID restrictions, we are not advertising the ceremony to the general public, but only inviting our membership, friends and families. There will be a VFW honor guard and our Post Chaplain, Vietnam veteran Navy Corpsman Dan Doyle, who served with the Marines at the siege of Khe Sanh in 1968, will be our speaker. The ceremony will conclude with the playing of taps.
The Edmonds Veterans plaza is located at 5th Ave. N. and Bell St, adjacent to the Edmonds Public Safety building.
Our usual Memorial Day observance at the Edmonds Memorial Cemetery will not be held this year because of COVID crowding concerns, but VFW Post 8870, with American Legion Post 66 will conduct a small Memorial Day Ceremony at the Edmonds Veterans Plaza at 1:00 pm on Monday, May 31. We will be recognizing the installation of sixteen new veterans’ pavers at the ceremony, perhaps including yours. Due to COVID restrictions, we are not advertising the ceremony to the general public, but only inviting our membership, friends and families. There will be a VFW honor guard and our Post Chaplain, Vietnam veteran Navy Corpsman Dan Doyle, who served with the Marines at the siege of Khe Sanh in 1968, will be our speaker. The ceremony will conclude with the playing of taps.
The Edmonds Veterans plaza is located at 5th Ave. N. and Bell St, adjacent to the Edmonds Public Safety building.
It has been quite a challenge getting the information kiosk at the plaza going, but we seem to be at a point where it is now really useful to visitors. Everyone is encouaged to visit the plaza and check out the content of the kiosk. If you have yet to submit details for any pavers, benches, or other items you have purchased to honor a veteran, please see the instructions for doing so, which are repeated later in this newsletter.
Further planned improvements to the Plaza include building a roof over the kiosk and adding a statue, possibly in the form of a human handler adjacent to the service dog statue, located at the east end of the plaza. Generous donors have already provided funding for these projects which are now pending design and city approval.
Map of Edmonds Veterans Plaza layout – Click to enlarge
Example of an individual page
Instructions to submit Veterans Plaza Kiosk Data
If you have purchased any of the several types of memorial spaces in the plaza for either yourself or other veterans, living or deceased, please select one of the Forms below and use its link to enter requested data for each honoree.
You are welcome to complete one of the forms below, or send the veterans’ information and photos to [email protected]. Also use the same email to correct the existing information on the kiosk. See the form below for what types of information we can use. Although ideal, it doesn’t have to be complete. Please use this format and save the committee the effort of following up with you individually!
Please select one of the Forms below and use its link.
Form A: For those who have a Google account**. Only Google account holders can upload photos directly from the form. Prepare the photos (Read Photo Specification*) and start the form below. —> https://forms.gle/HXNLN8AoGuJWtW4G7
Form B: For those who do not wish to have a Google account. We will send a separate email requesting photos later. Please go ahead and fill the form below. —> https://forms.gle/1iqMkSoaPUHfzo8H9
Either way, you will be requested (but not required) to provide up to 2 photos.
*Photo specification: Ideally optimized for 400w X 500h in pixels at 72 DPI and JPG (.jpg) format is preferred (up to 10 MB per photo in size allowed). You may want to start preparing them before you start filling the form. If you do not know how to do this, do not worry but go ahead and upload photos as they are.
** To create free Google account: (If you use Gmail or Google Calendar, you already have a Google account.) You can create it by visiting: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/56256?hl=en)
We would like to complete the Information Kiosk at the Edmonds Veterans Plaza by inputting data for each dedicated veteran. We created Online Forms for this purpose. Please help us!
If you have purchased any of the several types of memorial spaces in the plaza for either yourself or other veterans, living or deceased, please select one of the Forms below and use its link to enter requested data for each honoree.
The Edmonds Veterans Plaza Kiosk team is happy to announce that the kiosk is now loaded with the veterans’ basic information excerpted from the memorialized pavers and benches. Some of the veterans dedicated also have provided additional information and photos. You can go to the plaza and check out to see if you, your friend or family member is showing up. The Memorial ID and the map on the screen can help users to locate their pavers, etc.
The team will continue the effort to add more information and edit if needed. Please see the online version of the kiosk here (In other words, you can do the checking from your home remotely, too!): http://tribute-kiosk-software.com/edmonds/
You are welcome to complete one of the forms below. Or send the veterans’ information and photos to [email protected]. Also use the same email to correct the existing information on the kiosk. See the form below for what types of information we can use. Although ideal, it doesn’t have to be complete. Please use this format and save the committee the effort of following up with you individually!
Please select one of the Forms below and use its link.
Form A: For those who have a Google account**. Only Google account holders can upload photos directly from the form. Prepare the photos (Read Photo Specification*) and start the form below. —> https://forms.gle/HXNLN8AoGuJWtW4G7
Form B: For those who do not wish to have a Google account. We will send a separate email requesting photos later. Please go ahead and fill the form below. —> https://forms.gle/1iqMkSoaPUHfzo8H9
Either way, you will be requested (but not required) to provide up to 2 photos. *Photo specification: Ideally optimized for 400w X 500h in pixels at 72 DPI and JPG (.jpg) format is preferred (up to 10 MB per photo in size allowed). You may want to start preparing them before you start filling the form. If you do not know how to do this, do not worry but go ahead and upload photos as they are.
More than 350 veterans,
families, kids and well-wishers overflowed onto the sidewalks surrounding
the Edmonds Veterans Plaza Monday afternoon, all drawn by one purpose — to
honor, remember and connect with our military veterans.
Dan Doyle, VFW Post 8870
Chaplain, gave an emotional invocation that crystalized in a few words the
meaning of the day.
Chaplain Doyle
“We’re here today to honor those
who at some point in their lives signed a blank check to give, up to even
their lives, in service to you,” he said, “so that you and we all could
enjoy the liberties, peace and privileges of this nation.”
Emcee Rose Gilliland, VFW Post
8870 Commander, then took over: “I feel like I’m sitting in a living
history today,” she began. “I’m surrounded by veterans who have
lived it, breathed it and done it.” She went on to call on attendees from WWII,
Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War and Operation Enduring Freedom (the War on
Terror) to be recognized.
Rep. Peterson speaking
Keynote speaker was State
Representative Strom Peterson, who recalled how the Edmonds Veterans Plaza
got its start during his tenure serving on the Edmonds City Council. “It
was about five years ago that a core group of organizers put their
energies together to turn this area into a special place to honor
veterans,” he said. “With dogged determination, this core group
provided the energy and inspiration to accomplish this in record
time.” Peterson went on to stress the key role of the plaza in providing a
place to make connections.“For those who did not have the opportunity to
serve, it’s a place to connect with and learn from those who did,” he
explained. “For veterans like Michael Reagan who walks by my house
every day on his daily pilgrimage to the plaza, it’s a place to make
connections with his friends, some of whom didn’t make it back. And
for all of us, it’s a place to remember what it means to serve our
country and our community.”
Clara Jennings, WWII Marine veteran turns 100 in January
Jim Traner then announced the
names of those honored with newly placed pavers in the plaza:
Ron Pajoman, Navy 1960-1965 Chuck Smith, Army 1963-1999 Patrick Marker, Marines 1944-1946; 1950-1951 John, Gregg and Kim Sharp, Marines, Navy and Navy respectively (single paver) Beau Crabtree, Army 1991-2001 Donald Stapleton, Air Force, 1957-1978 William Cobb, Marine 1966-1968 Edward Johnson, Navy 1942-1946 Paul Hauck, Army 1944-1946; 1947-1963 Jim Roy Harrison, Navy 1942-1945 Jack Oharah, Navy 1962-1966 Jeffrey James Curtis, Marines, 1966-1967
Gold Star Mother Monica McNeal
was on hand to present a Vietnam War 50-year commemorative pin to Vietnam
veterans who had not previously received one. The program closed with Mike
Denton leading attendees in a chorus of “God Bless America”.
8 year old John Wyatt examines military memorabilia.
Mike Schindler explains the kiosk functions to Sylvana Rinehart.
In a brief ceremony on the afternoon of Memorial
Day, members of Post 8870 gathered with guests to dedicate the new Edmonds
Veterans Plaza information Kiosk.
Edmonds Mayor David Earling spoke briefly about the
importance of the Plaza to Edmonds veterans and the city at large,
followed by comments from Veterans Plaza Chair Ron Clyborne.
Edmonds Mayor David Earling
The information kiosk is designed to assist visiting veterans in sourcing a variety of benefits and assistance, by giving access from the plaza to the WAserves GreaterPuget Sound web site. Prominently displayed on the home page is the Veteran Crisis Line number (1-800-273-8255) providing ready access to emergency assistance. The kiosk operates by touch screen, making it easy to use. Soon, it will contain a data base of the names and service information of all of the individual veterans honored in the plaza and a guide to locate the veteran’s individual pavers, benches, etc. Also in planning is a cover over the kiosk to offer protection from weather, both to the equipment and the user. Stop by and take it for a test drive soon.
