Heritage Bank’s Burlington branch is hosting a special mobile Memorial Wall that was put together by Kelly Elementary School, paying tribute to the area’s fallen soldiers,
The Memorial Wall has also been on display at the school and at the State Capitol.
The wall will be at the bank through August 2, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
The public is invited to see the wall.
Kelly Elementary teacher Tammy Piedgon helped students research the personal stories of fallen soldiers from the area. They made the traveling wall as a class project.
Fifth graders spent the entire 2018 school year planning the traveling tribute to local soldiers killed in the line of duty. The ceremony unveiling their memorial wall in May 2018 featured a bagpiper, sports cars and motorcycles, former Miss America Heather French, then Kentucky’s Deputy Commissioner of Veteran Affairs, – and even a skydiver who landed right in front of the school.
“They knocked it out of the park,” said 12-year-old Parker Madden at the time. His father Russell was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. Parker and his family were the guests of honor at the unveiling, along with the loved ones of 13 other gold star veterans from the region.
“Most people don’t know what us families have been through,” said Madden. “I was just amazed at how well the memorial wall was done – it’s really great.”
The project received a prestigious Jefferson Award, presented by Children, Inc. as one of the top service-learning projects in the Greater Cincinnati area that year.
See the NKyTribune’s story about the unveiling of the wall here.