Build it NOW America! – that’s the rallying cry of the American Fallen Warrior Memorial Foundation (AFWMF) as it prepares to launche its national GoldStar11 tour in order to raise awareness and funds for the building of a $37 million national Memorial in Kansas City, Kansas to honor those fallen service men and women lost in conflicts since the Gulf War.
The GoldStar11 tour will begin on Saturday, August 31, at the Red Sox JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Florida and wind its way through 16 cities and 11 states before finishing up on Monday, October 7 at the Fort Douglas Military Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The tour’s top headliners will be two historic and inanimate artifacts known as Star11 and UT6. BothStar11 and UT6 are cement blocks that were removed from the slurry wall foundation at Ground Zero under the World Trade Center and commissioned to be sculpted into finished forms of 9/11 memorial artwork. Star11 will become the showcase artifact at the national Memorial in Kansas City, Kansas. UT6 will have a celebrated resting place at Fort Douglas.
Mountain Crane is the tour’s national sponsor and coordinator of logistics. To view the full itinerary and map, visit the GoldStar11 website. Donations can be made online by clicking on the gold “Donate Now”star on the homepage.
The traveling convoy, which is free and open to the public, will enable visitors to climb onto the convoy’s staging area to touch and take photographs with Star11 and UT6. During this viewing time, patriotic music will regale the crowds and a large American flag, courtesy of Annin Flagmakers, will be hoistedand flying proudly above the entire scene. Also on stage will be Gold Star family members, veterans,military and elected officials wishing to share personal stories, celebrate loved ones, and welcome AFWMF officials.
The professionally produced live entertainment show will be handled by AFWMF spokespeople andperformers such as Nathan Osmond, Jeff Senour, Diana Nagy and Bert Lynch. In Nashville on Tuesday, September 3, rock band CTS along with the Music City Youth Orchestra will perform a Freedom Concert at War Memorial Auditorium. On Monday, September 9, “America’s Tenor” Steve Amerson and soldier advocate Phil Taylor will appear at the Amarillo stop.
The tour’s name is a reference to Gold Star Families who have lost members in American militaryconflicts. Gold Star Mothers are those American women who have lost a son or daughter in service to the United States, and refer to service flags hung in windows of families since World War I. On the last Sunday in September, Gold Star Mother’s Day is observed in the U.S. in their honor.
“This is a very exciting time,” said Tonya Evans, Founder/CEO of the American Fallen Warrior Memorial Foundation and recipient of the 2013 Eagle Rare “Rare Life” Award. “This tour will be a physical manifestation of our total team effort to fund and build a national memorial befitting our fallen warriors.We’re thrilled the Atlanta Braves; Atlanta Motor Speedway; Boston Red Sox; St. Louis Cardinals; Indiana War Memorial; Nashville War Memorial Auditorium; Amarillo Civic Center; Shepherdsville, Kentucky; Moore, Oklahoma; Kansas Expocentre in Topeka, Kansas; and the Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence, Kansas are examples of the teams, cities, and venues that have endorsed our mission and partnered with us on this tour.”
“As this nation concludes its long military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, we cannot forget the nearly 7,000 Americans who have lost their lives as a result of conflicts since the Gulf War started,” Evans said. “Nor can we overlook the terrible price paid by their families. Every American who benefits from their ultimate sacrifice should be supporting this effort to build the national memorial now so we can honor and celebrate their lives.”
About American Fallen Warrior Memorial Foundation
The AFWMF was founded in 2011 and is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, with the goal of building a Memorial to honor our Fallen Warriors from the Gulf War to present date. The secondary goal of AFWMF is educating America’s youth about the sacrifices being made for our freedoms. The goals of the AFWMF will be accomplished with the help of Patriotic Americans joining forces to make sure this memorial is completed and that our Fallen Warriors have a suitable and sacred place of remembranceand honor.
For more information, please visit the AFWMF website.
