Blues show to help Gurnee memorial
Another demonstration of regional support for the planned Heroes of Freedom Memorial in Gurnee should be evident next month at a benefit blues concert set for Chicago's Millennium Park.
Kirk Morris, the father of a Gurnee soldier who died in Iraq and a driving force behind the memorial, said Monday that Buddy Guy and other blues artists are expected at the Sept. 30 fund-raiser.
Roughly 4,000 tickets will be sold for the event, Morris said, with seats ranging from $45 to $100. The date was selected to coincide with Gold Star Mothers Sunday.
"It's a big deal," he said.
Gurnee has donated the site of its former police headquarters for the Heroes of Freedom Memorial. It'll honor all U.S. military personnel who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq.
About $250,000 is being raised to create three 9-foot bronze statues dedicated to the deaths of Warren Township's Sean Maher and Gurnee's Geoffrey Morris, both Marines, and Libertyville soldier Wesley Wells. The men died in battle in 2004 and 2005.
Plans call for one statue to represent an Army soldier and another depicting a Marine. The third bronze sculpture will be of a female Marine who informed Geoffrey Morris' family of his death.
Fundraising efforts for the memorial have gone from suburban shopping malls to Arlington Park. Kirk Morris said the Millennium Park blues concert might generate $100,000.
Roughly $5,200 was generated from a raffle for a replica of the Heroes of Freedom Memorial. Ed Kuhl of Rolling Meadows was announced as the winner during the Gurnee village board meeting Monday night.
Just before the winning name was plucked from a military helmet, Gurnee Trustee Michael Jacobs called over Kirk Morris and paid $20 for a ticket.
"I hit the jackpot," Jacobs said. "I'm feeling lucky."
Prizes of smaller, 2-inch memorial replicas were won by Diana Special of Chicago and Jim Barnes of Vernon Hills.
Donations have paid for nine poles representing every military branch at the memorial. A garden and walkway also have been constructed.