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5/24 – 5/26 Gainesville Veterans for Peace Memorial Mile

Gainesville Veterans for Peace will be displaying 6,781 tombstones from 7 a.m. on May 24 through dusk on Memorial Day, May 26, 7 p.m. to remember those who have died in the wars in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003.

Memorial Mile will line the street along Eighth Avenue just east of 34th Street, where the Solar System Walk is located. This is the eighth year VFP has set up the display, and in 2008 we had to cross over to the North side of Eighth Avenue due to the increased number of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 Veterans for Peace representatives will be available and have, on site at an information table, a book that directs visitors to specific tombstones. Every year, people come to the Memorial Mile to place flowers and other expressions of love at the tombstones of their loved ones and friends.

This year’s event will also feature the Peace Ribbon from Code Pink. This is an ongoing grassroots project in which individuals and groups make panels honoring the victims of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq by creating a cloth memorial to fallen service members and Afghan and Iraqi civilians. The Peace Ribbon contains 225 panels. To find out more about the Peace Ribbon.

Join us! To volunteer for set up, clean up, or guard duty, contact Scott Camil at 352-375-2563.