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Lexington could soon join more than 100 communities across the country as a home to a Gold Star Memorial, as the Lexington City Council voted at its meeting Thursday to provide a location for the memorial at Jordans Point Park once the funds for the memorial were raised.
The project for the memorial is being led by Jaden Keuhner, a junior at Washington and Lee University and cadet in the Army ROTC program at the Virginia Military Institute.
Keuhner and his father, Daniel, attended the meeting and gave a presentation on Gold Star Memorials and the Woody Williams Foundation which helps fund and install memorials for Gold Star families all throughout the country. Currently, 42 states have at least one Gold Star Memorial, as does the U.S. ter- critorial island of Guam. The remaining eight are in the process of completing their first memorial.
“Gold Star Family” is the term used to describe the family (spouse, parents, siblings, etc.) of someone who has died while serving in the military during a time of conflict. Rockbridge County has two such families from recent conflicts: the families of 1st Lt. Stephen Chase Prasnicki and Capt. Andrew Ross who were killed in Afghanistan in 2012 and 2017, respectively. Both Prasnicki and Ross graduated from Rockbridge County High School and then from the United States Military Academy at West Point. The memorial that the Keuhners plan to install will not be for their families exclusively, but for all Gold Star families in the country.
“Between Lexington’s rich military history and, not only the Presnicki and Ross families, but all of the families who have lost someone and sacrificed so much, I can think of no greater reason that Lexington is an excellent choice for the next Gold Star Memorial,” Jaden told the City Council during his presentation.
Kehuner and his father have been working with the Woody Williams foundation for several years now, with Daniel Keuhner overseeing the installation of two Gold Star Memorials in Virginia over the past three years. The first was on the Keuhners’ property in Lovettsville in Loudoun County, and the second memorial will be dedicated on May 29 in Chesapeake.
The foundation was founded by Hershel “Woody” Williams, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. Prior to joining the Marine Corps, Williams spent the early years of the war interacting with Gold Star families in his hometown of Quiet Dell, W. Va., delivering Western Union telegrams to families telling them of the loss of their loved ones.
Williams had the goal of creating a memorial for those families, and the first Gold Star Memorial was dedicated in Institute, W.Va., in October of 2013. After that, Williams began looking to install as many monuments as he could, hoping to have one in every state. Virginia’s first Gold Star Memorial, located in Bedford, was dedicated in May of 2017. The Keuhners’ memorial was the second in the commonwealth and was dedicated on Sept. 11, 2020. It was the 65th Gold Star Monument dedicated in the country. The one in Chesapeake will be the 124th.
Fundraising for the Lexington memorial is already underway. The estimated cost for the memorial is $60,000, with $32,500 of that already being raised.
Joining Keuhner and his father on the fundraising committee are Jon Torre, a sophomore at W&L who plays on the baseball team with Keuhner, and Sarah Giesen-Ross, Gold Star Sister to Captain Ross. Keuhner told The News-Gazette in an email that he is reaching out to local businesses and restaurants for fundraising opportunities, and hopes that the details “will soon be ironed out.” He would like to have the fundraising complete before he graduates from W&L next May, although his father’s goals are a bit more ambitious.
“He hopes the fundraising is done by the time he graduates, I hope to have it installed before he graduates,” he informed council.
The Keuhners proposed installing the memorial next to the pavilion in Jordans Point Park. Council member Leslie Straughan, while noting that the park was a good location “in general,” wondered if there might be a more appropriate site elsewhere, possibly along the ADA accessible path that runs along the Maury River opposite the pavilion. She cited plans to put a playground near the pavilion and wondered if that might interfere with the reverence of the memorial.
Daniel Keuhner commented that the memorials are not just for honoring Gold Star families, but they also serve as a way to educate younger generations of their sacrifice, noting that classes of elementary school students have been to see the memorial on their property in Lovettsville.
“The one big thing that the foundation really takes very seriously is that there are a lot of people who don’t know what a Gold Star family is,” he said. “This memorial acts as a reference of education … We look at it as a way of being able not only to reach the community and honor those who have given their lives, but that we can teach and we can educate. From a community standpoint, it serves as a very strong point to even teach in our schools to students who don’t know what this is all about.”
Vice Mayor Marilyn Alexander suggested giving the Keuhners a copy of the master plan for Jordans Point Park “so that they can make a better decision about exactly where they want [the memorial] so that it’s in a safe place and in an accessible place.”
Councilman David Sigler made the motion to approve use of Jordans Point Park as the site for the memorial, with Alexander providing the second. The motion passed in a 5-0 vote, with Council member Chuck Smith absent from the meeting.
“Seeing all of the Council members vote in favor of the project, I knew that I was doing the right thing and had the support of the town,” Jaden told The News-Gazette via email. “It felt pretty incredible that so many people have already begun to support this project.”
Donations to help fund the Lexington Memorial can be made at https://www.woodywilliams. org/monuments/ lexington-va.html.
