The effort to erect a Gold Star Families Memorial in Keizer got a boost with two recent contributions.
Plans are for the memorial to be set in the Private Ryan J. Hill Park, a city park in Keizer Station.
Recently, the Keizer Elks donated $4,000 and the city Parks Advisory Board approved a $10,000 grant.
“It’s been going wonderfully,” said Tim Berry with the local committee pushing the effort.
Berry said the fund drive has raised $27,000 so far toward a monument cost of about $55,000. He said construction costs to install the monument in the city park could push the final cost to about $100,000.
He said fundraising has to be completed in June for the project to move forward.
The Rec at 3500 River Rd. N. is hosting a fund-raising bowling event at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 31. Half the proceeds from the public bowling session will go to the monument committee with a match of up to $1,000.
Berry said donations for the Keizer project can be made directly on the website of the Woody Williams Foundation, a national nonprofit
Volunteers earlier this year cleared a fountain and landscaping island at the park to make away for the monument.
The park includes historical markers, benches and a walking path. It was dedicated in 2013 to honor Hill, a Keizer resident.
Hill enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2005 and deployed with an infantry company to Iraq the following year.
His mother, Shawna Fenison, testified about her son as the Legislature in 2019 considered and approved a resolution honoring him.
She said her son wrote her about soldiers being killed in his company.
“He took each loss personally,” she said. On patrols, “He always wanted to be in the lead vehicle.”
He wrote in October 2006 about a soldier dying from sniper fire.
“I ask that you remember your freedoms and that we willingly gave ours up to protect our loved ones back home,” he wrote. “Some of us won’t make it back from this place and we shall never forget them. The rest of us who are here will keep fighting for you and those you love.”
He was killed in Iraq the following January during a patrol of Baghdad when his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. He was buried at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland.
News tip? Contact Les Zaitz at [email protected].
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