Event Details

May 25 to June 1, 2019
Freedom Park, 86 Union Street, Medford, NJ 08055

This inspiring and memorable display will draw together residents of Medford and Burlington County to honor the heroes who have touched our lives and served our community and our nation.

Beginning on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and lasting all week until Saturday, June 1st, visitors to Medford’s Freedom Park will be greeted by a sea of full-size American flags fluttering in the breeze. Arranged in perfectly symmetrical rows, each one will have been sponsored by a resident or business in honor of a hometown hero: perhaps a family member who gave their life in service to our nation; perhaps a first responder who saves lives and touches our community every day, or maybe a beloved family member or friend who currently wears a uniform to keep our nation safe.

This patriotic panorama of red, white and blue is hard to describe, but once experienced, will not be forgotten.

The Medford Field of Honor® display will bring together corporate and individual sponsors, volunteers and community leaders, all through the work of Medford Sunrise Rotary Club. And the Medford Field of Honor® could not have been launched at a better time, for it is on Memorial Day 2019 that the tireless work of the Burlington County Memorial Committee will see a new monument dedicated in Freedom Park to honor those local residents who served in WW2, the Korean Conflict, and those who gave their lives in conflicts post-Vietnam. The Medford Field of Honor® will be adjacent to where the war memorials are located and where dedication ceremonies will be held on Memorial Day.

Medford Sunrise Rotary is part of a global network of business and community leaders dedicated to community service, elimination of hunger, disease and suffering, and to peace. “The global Rotary motto of “Service Above Self” exemplifies the brave men and women whom we will be honoring on the Medford Field of Honor®,” said Kevin Frenia, Medford Sunrise Rotary president for 2018-19. “The men and women who serve as first responders in all weather and conditions; the people in military uniforms who serve today by putting our country first, and our heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice when their nation called them into service—these are our heroes who are living examples of Service Above Self.”

Members of the community are invited to sponsor a 3ft x 5ft American-made flag that will fly on an 8-foot flagpole and to dedicate that flag in honor of a person of their choosing. Medallions naming those heroes will be affixed to a flag, and will be reachable during the display from a central directory. After the Medford Field of Honor® display has ended on June 1^st, sponsors are invited to keep the personalized medallion.

Corporate sponsors will be given significant exposure for their generous support of The Medford Field of Honor® display, along with several flags which will also fly naming heroes of their choice.

“We owe so much to those who gave their lives to the cause of freedom,” said event chair David C. Forward. “We have just witnessed the centennial of the ending of World War I, so we have a list of 91 local men who gave their lives in that conflict. There are stories of local men who carried their injured comrades through machine gun fire and mustard gas attacks just so they could save them—and who were themselves then killed. Any member who does not have their own hero to nominate is certainly welcome to do so in the name of one of those 91 brave men.”

Any proceeds remaining after The 2019 Medford Field of Honor® has ended will be given to charities, with a special focus on those that serve veterans and advocate peace.

For further details, please contact one of the Medford Sunrise Rotarians named below.