Please join me this Sunday afternoon, February 26, 2017, for the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial – Expansion Groundbreaking ceremony.

Irvine’s Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial, located in Northwood Community Park, is the nation’s first memorial dedicated exclusively to listing the names of all the fallen American service members in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The names of every service member who has died in Afghanistan and Iraq are engraved in granite in a permanent memorial, to assure that future generations of Americans will remember and honor them with gratitude as we do today. The panels carry the names of all those who died in Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn.

The Memorial is the result of both community activism and local government commitment. In 2003, shortly after the invasion of Iraq, an Irvine resident named Dr. Asher Milgrom created the first display in the park. The original make-shift memorial consisted of thirty wooden posts bearing the names and photos of the fallen. Starting in 2006, a non-partisan group of Irvine residents advocated for the establishment of a permanent memorial. In late 2009, the Irvine City Council unanimously approved a plan to create a permanent memorial, which was dedicated on November 14, 2010.

I am proud to say that last year, the Irvine Community Services Commission, of which I was then a member, recommended that the City add two new pillars to the site. extend the area of the plaza, install two new benches, and add a pedestal with history of the Memorial. The City Council then unanimously approved the Commission’s recommendations.

Irvine has a long and proud military tradition. From 1942 to 1999, Irvine was home to Marine Air Station El Toro, the largest Marine Corps Air Station on the West Coast. During World War II, the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War, thousands of United States Marines, as well as airmen, sailors, and soldiers, departed for war from MCAS El Toro.  Irvine’s own sons and daughters have also served our nation in times of war. Too many did not return.

As the daughter of a combat veteran and as an Irvine City Councilmember, I am proud that Irvine honors our fallen heroes.

I hope to see you there.

What: Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial – Expansion Groundbreaking

Where: Northwood Community Park, 4531 Bryan Avenue, Irvine, CA 92620

When: Sunday, February 26, 2017, 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

For more information, call 949-724-6728.