Volunteers began planting 4,100 American flags early this morning at Tempe Beach Park to honor victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and fallen soldiers of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
About 200 volunteers helped a national service organization construct a "Healing Field," full of 3-by-5-foot flags, beginning at 4:30 a.m.
"There will be rows and rows and rows of flags," said Kris Baxter, City of Tempe spokeswoman. "I alike it to a meditation garden."
Three local chapters of the National Exchange Club, a volunteer national service organization, are placing the flags at the park in Tempe, dedicated to Sept. 11 victims. The national organization will do the same in 20 locations across the country.
Exchange Club of Mesa, Exchange Club of Tempe and the Professional Exchange Club of Scottsdale will host the Tempe Healing Field today through Sunday at the Tempe Beach Park.
ASU will not host events commemorating the three-year anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, but the University has a permanent Rose Garden for the victims of Sept. 11 outside the Student Services Building.
"I don't think we will ever be over 9/11," said sociology senior Lourde Ramos, "For other events that fall on Saturday, things happen the Friday before or the Monday, but it's up to every club to do what they want."
Volunteers are placing 1,100 of the more than 4,000 flags on the field for soldiers who have been lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each flag will have a yellow ribbon with a soldier's name on it.
"It is important to me because I am a retired Air Force major," said Michael Whitaker, Southwest District president of National Exchange Club. "My wife is an Army reservist command sergeant major. She has been serving in Fort Bliss in El Paso [Texas] for a year and a half."
The volunteers expect the field to be completed at noon.
"The field will be open to the public to walk as though they were walking a cemetery," Whitaker said.
At 4 p.m., the radio station KFYI plans to air its regular show as a live broadcast from Tempe Beach Park, Whitaker said, in order to participate in the event.
Mourners plan to host a candlelight vigil in the park tonight at 7.
Saturday at 9:30 a.m. a memorial service will be held at the park, where 8-year-old Chris Reah of the Phoenix Boys Choir will sing the National Anthem. Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman will also announce the day as National Patriots' Day, Whitaker said.
Volunteers will then read the thousands of names of the victims who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the U.S. service personnel who died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The public will also be allowed to sign up to read some of the names during this service.
Three Valley families whose sons died will attend a public non-denominational service Sunday at 9 a.m., where the Luke Honor Guard will tri-fold the soldiers' flags and present them to the families.
The weekend-long event will end at 3 p.m. on Sunday, when volunteers will begin to take down the flags.
Members of the National Exchange Club will sell flags used in the event to the public for $30. Proceeds will go to the club, which benefits its four programs, which encourage patriotism, youth, community service and prevention of child abuse.
"I expect to sell out of them," Whitaker said. "I will be terribly disappointed if we do not sell every one of them."
Reach the reporter at katherine.ruark@asu.edu.
