HomeMy WebLinkAboutApril 30 - Veterans Memorial
City of Edina • 4801 W. 50th St. • Edina, MN 55424
Contact: Lauryn Grimes, Communications Assistant
Phone 952-826-0348 • lgrimes@EdinaMN.gov • www.EdinaMN.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
City To Host Dedication of Veterans Memorial
Edina, Minn., April 30, 2015 – Construction of the Edina Veterans Memorial at Utley Park is nearly finished
and the City plans to hold a dedication ceremony celebrating the completion of the four-year project on
Memorial Day.
The Edina Veterans Memorial serves as a unifying symbol of shared community values in honoring all Edina
veterans of the nation’s armed forces – past, present and future. Thirty-two native and adopted sons of Edina
who died in the line of duty are individually remembered through this memorial.
Construction of the memorial began last September after funding for the project was secured. In 2010, the
memorial was budgeted to cost $450,000. Over the past three years, committee members have been busy
visiting with donors and state government leaders. Their efforts resulted in $196,380 in private cash donations,
including a $100,000 contribution from Dave Frauenshuh and his family and $20,000 from the Edina Rotary
Foundation. In addition, the Edina City Council approved $39,461 in City funds, the State of Minnesota issued a
Legacy Fund grant in the amount of $9,900 available upon completion of the project and the State Legislature
issued a general matching grant in the amount of $225,000.
“We are proud to have such an inspirational memorial within the City park system,” said Centennial Lakes Park
Manager and Staff Liaison to the Veterans Memorial Committee Tom Shirley. “It is long overdue.”
The new memorial features a V-shaped granite plaza emblematic of “victory” leading up to the focal point of the
memorial, an eagle and flag design. The wall names the 32 Edina soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in the
line of duty since the City’s founding and three illuminated flagpoles at the edge of the plaza hoisted with the
American flag, the State flag and a white-on-black POW flag to honor troops in captivity or missing in action.
A dedication ceremony will be held in honor of the City’s new memorial 10 a.m. Memorial Day, Monday, May
25 at Utley Park, 4521 W. 50th St. Edina Mayor Jim Hovland and other elected officials will speak. The First John
Philip Sousa Memorial Band will play beginning at 9:30 a.m. The Committee encourages the public -- especially
veterans, donors and Edina residents -- to attend the event.
“We are coming together on Memorial Day to say thank you, to honor the living and pay tribute to the dead, to
join as members of this community and say that they matter, that their dedication and sacrifice matter, that
living in this free nation matters,” said Veterans Memorial Committee Chair Richard Olson. “By attending the
dedication, [we] will let our presence prove that we are proud to say so. We are not only placing a wreath to
be remembered for a day, we are dedicating a beautiful and special space where we can gather to
remember and honor them for generations to come. Our veterans are not forgotten and never will be.”
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