Effort to Bring a Veterans Memorial to Bloomington Gaining Traction

(Bloomington, MN) – Bloomington is one of the few cities in the state of Minnesota that doesn’t currently have some kind of veterans memorial, and the grassroots effort to get one built is gaining traction.

A Brewery Bash will take place in the community room at Nine Mile Brewing Company, located at 9555 James Avenue South, Suite 290, Bloomington, MN 55431, on Sunday, September 18, 2022, between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. The establishment is less than a mile north of Bloomington Civic Plaza where the memorial will be built.

The event will feature a silent auction, food trucks, and live entertainment courtesy of longtime Twin Cities musician, singer and songwriter Tim Mahoney, who appeared on a season of The Voice. Also performing are the Riddle Brothers—Charlie, Mark and Michael—who play an eclectic acoustic blend of pure Americana, Folk, and original songs; and Pocket Full of Soup, a band of Donaldson Filtration Company employees.

Donaldson Filtration Company’s world headquarters is in Bloomington. The company is one of the event sponsors. So is Nine Mile Brewing Company, the hottest spot in Bloomington right now. The Brewery is donating the use of its community room to the nonprofit as a place to host the event.

All of the silent auction items, which include a ride in a World War II era vintage plane, were donated as well. One hundred percent of the monies raised will go toward the cost of building the memorial.

About the Bloomington Veterans Memorial

The Bloomington Veterans Memorial is a $750,000 project conceived as a series of experiences embedded on a path that will serve to honor, remember and share the stories of Bloomington’s veterans and their families. So far, a site has been selected—the East Lawn of the Civic Plaza—and architecture firm Leo A. Daly, an award-winning architecture firm that does work across the globe, has been commissioned. Construction is expected to get underway in Spring 2023.

The design features two symbolic walking paths: one for the veteran and the other for the family. The paths meet at a flagpole flying the American and Prisoner-of-War (POW) flags. The flagpole, and the plaza surrounding it, will be the centerpiece serving as a backdrop for community activities and gatherings, and the visible connection to the stories of Bloomington veterans.

Also included will be lighted circular platforms engraved with the symbols representing each of the six military branches—Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force—and six armatures from which individual recognition will be provided through symbolic dog tags that can be hung from each arm.

The dog tags will feature some 21st Century. On them will hang 5-inch-by-7-inch symbolic metal dog tags identifying Bloomington Veterans. The tags will name the service man or woman, their service branch and years of service, and some additional information you wouldn’t expect to find at a memorial.

Each dog tag will have a QR code etched into it that leads people who take a picture of it with their phones to a special tribute website. The special dog tags will be sold for $350 each.

In addition to identifying the veteran and telling their story in text, there can also be photographs and a video tribute to the veteran. A sample tribute can be viewed at Bloomingtonveteransmemorial.org/dogtags.

Any veteran with a verifiable record of service in the U.S. Armed Forces who has a past or present connection to Bloomington will be considered eligible for inclusion in memorial. The intent is to honor those living and deceased who have served our country.

One hundred percent of the funding for the memorial’s construction is coming from private donations. No tax money will go towards the memorial. Information about how to make a donation can be found on the website: Bloomingtonveteransmemorial.org/get-involved/donate/

Learn more about volunteering for the project at BloomingtonVeteransMemorial.org, or by contacting Terry Collins, President of Bloomington Remembers Veterans Inc. He can be reached at 952-334-3859 or via e-mail at collinsterry13@icloud.com.

About Bloomington Remembers Veterans

Founded in 2018, Bloomington Remembers Veterans Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization staffed by an all-volunteer committee of dedicated community members, the majority of whom are veterans from several different branches of the armed forces. The organization will be overseeing the memorial’s construction, then plans to turn the site over to the City of Bloomington to maintain it.

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