Healing Field of Honor taking shape in Naperville

Organizers of Naperville's ambitious Healing Field of Honor project expected to take two days to finish installing 2,009 American flags at Rotary Hill along the city's Riverwalk.

But volunteers who showed up for the first shift of flagpole plantings at noon Friday were making quick work of the project. Within 15 minutes, more than 200 flags were symmetrically fluttering in the wind at the base of the hill.

"I had read about this on the Internet and I thought I'd come out because I wanted to do something to honor our veterans," Naperville resident Alice Utter said.

Once complete, it will be the largest display in the Healing Field organization's history, officials said.

Before the arrival of the volunteers, organizers had marked where the poles should go. White dots showed where the poles would go while blue lines warned crews of the park's sprinkler system.

When finished, the flags will be evenly spaced five feet apart and the 50-plus rows will be separated by 10 feet of grass. Walking paths dissect the field of flags.

Volunteers carrying bunches of the 3-by-5-foot flags attached to 8-foot poles could barely keep up with the four-man crews responsible for putting them in place. One member of the crew would place flagpole supports in the ground while the second would hammer them in. The third member of the crew would place the flagpole on the support and the fourth was responsible for unfurling the flag.

The event is being spearheaded by the Naperville Exchange Club and the park district. Twenty donors gave $1,500 each to pay for the flags, which are being individually sold for $35 each to raise money for the Fisher House near the Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital. Handwritten placards are placed on the poles of each purchased flag indicating who the flag is honoring.

So far, about 800 of the flags have been purchased, organizers said.

Anna Zimmerman, who is heading the flag sales committee, said she is amazed by some of the stories she hears when people buy flags.

"There are so many," she said. "I just had one yesterday where a man showed up on my stoop to buy a flag for someone who died in combat in September."

Zimmerman will be stationed at the Riverwalk restaurant near the hill from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the next week for anyone who wants to buy a flag. She'll be at the field until 7 p.m. on Veterans Day.

The field of flags will be on display starting Sunday when organizers begin placing the placards on the flagpoles. The city is holding its Veterans Day ceremony adjacent the field of flags on Wednesday at the base of the Millennium Carillon to dedicate the structure's new flagpole.

The flags will be taken down Nov. 15 and those who purchased one can either take the flag with them or leave it with organizers who may use them again next year if they decide to do the event again.

"It's been a lot of work putting this together," said Dave Wentz, past president of the Exchange Club. "But now that we know what all has gone into it, we'll see if we can do this again."

In addition to flag sales, $3 tours of the Millennium Carillon are being offered to view the field from above on Veterans Day and 150 limited edition prints of an artist's rendering of the field will be sold for $100 each with the proceeds also going to the Fisher House.