Category Archives: Events

Memorial Mile honors fallen soldiers

WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports

MADISON (WKOW) — Volunteers began setting up the annual Memorial Mile in Madison Saturday.

The tombstone display is in memory of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, recognized every year for Memorial Day weekend.

Members of Veterans for Peace and other volunteers put up nearly 6,800 tombstones along Atwood Avenue at Olbrich Park.

“We’ve lost 6,800 service personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq and what we want to do is show for the next week tombstones that represent those Americans who have been killed in those wars,” says coordinator John Fournelle.

The display stays up through Memorial Day until next Saturday.

Originally posted on WKOW.com.

2014 Memorial Mile at Olbrich Park

Chapter 25 will again erect the stunning Memorial Mile in Olbrich Park, Madison, along Atwood Avenue. This impressive and disturbing mile of over 6,000 tomb stones is in memory to the US soldiers whose lives were lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the first mile was erected in 2007, the chapter has received constant positive feedback from those who observe the mile by walking the sidewalk or even while driving by. The mile is erected by volunteers led by Chapter members. Starting at 9am Saturday, May 24, 2014, the mile will take about two hours to install. It will remain in place until Saturday, May 31 when volunteers will remove the display.

Memorial Mile

2014 Memorial Day Program by Chapter 25, Madison Veterans for Peace

Madison Veterans for Peace will hold its annual Peace Rally at James Madison Park on Memorial Day.

The program begins at 1pm with musical selections from the band Old Cool.

The featured speaker is Nicole McCoy, U.S. Marine, who will speak on “Sexual Abuse and Rape in the Military”

Nicole McCoy is a 24 year old Marine Corps Veteran from Colby, WI. After joining the Corps in 2008 she was stated in Albany, GA where she deployed to Afghanistan. During her enlistment, she had experienced multiple assaults and rapes. During on investigation she was lied to about requirements for the sex offender registration, which eventually lead her to start the first and largest petition against the Military. Her petition was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, Glamour Magazine online blog, interviews with Oprah, and Dan Rather. Nicole’s petition is asking for requirements to be changed when it comes to Military Sex Crime convictions, and asking for discharge papers to disclose any punishments one might have received while in the Military. Her petition has received just under 1/2 of a million signatures and still growing.

This years $1200 Madison High School Scholarship to attend Madison College will be awarded to Shamell Long’Homesly during the program.  Shamell is a student at Malcom Shabazz City High School and the winner of the 2014 James Allen Memorial Peace Scholarship.  (See more on scholarships from Chapter 25)

We hope you can join us at the park. In the event of rain, the program will be moved inside the Gates of Heaven facility at the park.