Gold Star Tribute

By Naperville Magazine
Appears in the December 2021 issue.

Local organizations gathered on September 26 at a groundbreaking ceremony for Naperville’s Gold Star Families Memorial at Veterans Park. A combined VFW and American Legion Color and Honor Guards joined performances by the Naperville Municipal Band and Men’s Glee Club to set a beautiful, solemn tone.

The memorial will honor Gold Star families—the immediate kin of 127 fallen Naperville service members who made the ultimate sacrifice. The two-sided tribute, fabricated from black granite, will be seven feet tall and 15 feet long.

The Naperville monument will be installed and dedicated in the spring, one of nearly 100 monuments in the country and the third in Illinois. Donations can be made to the sponsoring Woody Williams Foundation at woodywilliams.org.

Photo courtesy Woody Williams Foundation