Buffalo Grove dedicates news Vet's Memorial with service, remembrance
A tradition started in Buffalo Grove on Saturday, as veterans and community leaders gathered for the first time at the village's new Veterans Memorial.
A brass quintet from the U.S. Navy Band Great Lakes opened the Veterans Day observance, before American Legion Post 208 members from Arlington Heights posted the colors and later delivered a rifle salute.
The event took place 11 years to the day after a group of Buffalo Grove veterans dedicated a simple monument at Veterans Park, located at 1300 N. Weiland Road, across the street from Aptakisic Junior High School.
On Saturday, they saw their quest take on bigger proportions as Buffalo Grove Park District officials unveiled a new, $275,000 Veterans Memorial.
Those who gathered admired the shiny new black granite monuments and lighted flagpoles, positioned around a stone retaining wall and landscaped berms. They read the names inscribed on the bricks and even the flagpoles to honor military personnel.
"It's just beautiful," said Karen Larson Meadows of Buffalo Grove, whose son, Army Capt. Drew Larson, is on his third tour of duty in Iraq as a Medevac helicopter pilot. "There are a lot of dedicated veterans here that made this happen."
The memorial replaces the original one at Veterans Park, which was established in 1996 by AmVets Post 255 in Buffalo Grove and later enhanced in 2004 by Buffalo Grove Garden Club members who installed a Blue Star Memorial marker.
Its monuments rest on the eastern edge of the 9.5-acre park, with its soccer and baseball fields, tennis and basketball courts and bike path. It was named Veterans Park in 1993 to honor military personnel deployed in Operation Desert Storm.
"We always wanted to have a place in the community where we could honor the sacrifices made by the veterans," said Raymond Rigsby, former Buffalo Grove public works director, and a hospital corpsman attached to the Marines in Vietnam.
"When we started looking at doing something like this, it would have been cost prohibitive," Rigsby added. "This is amazing. It's well beyond what we ever thought of."
"We know there are many people who now will have a place to pause and give thanks for the service men and women overseas who are fighting for our freedom," park board President Larry Weiner said.