Veterans Memorial Pathway
July 4th Program 2010 The weather had been bad leading up to our July 3rd, 2010 Veterans Memorial Pathway ceremony at the Keystone cemetery, but God was looking over us and he gave us cloudy and windy conditions. We were expecting to have rather hot weather but it was very nice.
Our program was started off with the Civil Air Patrol Color Guard from Gainesvile, who the week before was in Oregon and won the National Championship Color Guard competitions, so we were very happy to have had this great team doing our opening and closing of the Colors.
We also had our regular lovely singers, Kyleigh Hill and Abby Craven who sang patriotic songs, including the Military Medley and Amazing Grace. The laying of the wreath was done by American Legion Post #202 Judge Advocate, Bill Horner who was escorted by the President elect, Ann Horner. A minute of silence was observed as we do at each Ceremony to honor the veterans who had passed away since the November 2009 ceremony.
Jackie Host and Ursula Wida of the garden Club of the Lakes, both read the 31 names of veterans who had an engraved brick bought for them during phase #11. Our speakers were 16 year old Tyler Brown, who spoke on "Our Heroes" and Bob Oehl, Ret. USAF and Capt of CAP, a very interesting speech on the CAP during WWII and now, also about his Mother being a member of the WWII C.A.P. Our re-enactment team was not available, they were demonstrating their skills at the annual Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. We are very proud of our local team and we know they were the best.
Our next ceremony will be held on Veterans Day, November 11th at 11 a.m at the KH cemetery, everyone who wishes to Honor and Salute our veterans are Welcome to attend, we do provide some seating, you can bring a chair with you, we do give out free bottled water donated by Hitchcocks Supermarket in KH.
Our "Buy a Brick for a Vet" bricks can be bought for a donation of $35 this is for 3-4 lines with 18-21 characters including spaces. Contact Joan 352-473-5450 or 904-472-7191 OR Elsie at 352-473-9545 for the forms or any other information you might need. We will have the Kiosk board up in the cemetery -pathway area very soon and you will be able to pick up brick forms there also at City Hall on Lawrence Blvd, KH.
DEADLINE - all brick orders must be into us by September 15th to be eligible for the November 11th ceremony. Please get these to us ASAP, thank you.
Information--we do carry T Shirts with Veterans Memorial Pathway photo on them in white - sizes Small - XL are $10, XXL and larger are $12......We have Tote Bags for $7.50 each......we have many different Post Cards,(ALL ON SALE) Cards with envelopes are 35 cents each, regular cards only 15 cents each or 8 for $1.00......we have post cards you can mail 15 cents each or 8 for $1.00 We have these on sale at the Garden Club table at each ceremony, please check them out when you come to next ceremony. THANK YOU! 
Joan Jones VMP Chairman worked hard to make the July 4th Program special.
Speakers: Tyler Brown, Carrie Milligan Garden Club Chapline, Col. Tom Beukelman C.A.P, Bob Oehl USAF & Captian of C.A.P.
Civil Air Patrol Color Guard
A view of some who attended the program.
Mary Wadsworth, Bob Oehl, Ret. USAF & Capt of C.A.P. & Joan Jones
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Veteran's Memorial Pathway History
This is how our pathway looked in the begining. Sure has improved over the years.
This project was a 'dream come true' for our past president Joan Jones In November 2004 she woke up from a deep sleep with this dream on her mind, something she had been wanting to do for 58+ years since arriving in the USA from her homeland, Australia as a WWII War Bride to thank the US service personnel for them saving her country from enemy invasion. After staying awake the rest of the night, she drew plans for this memorial she thought of, she got the plans drawn, next went to the Garden Club of the Lakes (she was president at that time) got their interest, then off to the City council meeting where after showing her plans for this memorial, they voted 100% to let her do it. They gave her a small area in the Keystone Heights cemetery to do this project for the Veterans.
The project is called "Buy a Brick for a Vet", for a $35 donation an engraved brick can be made for veterans, with their name, rank, dates etc, after it is returned from the engraver it is put into the pathway at a ceremony on either July 4th or Veterans Day, November 11th annually. This project has been an ongoing one for 5 years with 600 bricks in the pathway, under the benches and in front of the large granite monument.
We are very proud of our Pathway, our memorial ceremonies twice annually
are military, school children singing patriotic songs, laying of a wreath and a minute of silence for our Veterans, we also have an invocation by a local minister/preacher also the reading of the names of the new bricks going into the pathway, speeches by military, city, county or local participants. We have always had a re-enactment, and a WWII aircraft fly-over which most of the audience look forward too.
For brick information contact Joan at 352-473-5450 or 904-472-7191 OR Elsie
at 352-473-9545