COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — There's an opportunity this weekend to support local veterans working to bring a new Honor Bell to southern Colorado.
It will be identical to the Honor Bell stored at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver and used to honor veterans being laid to rest. Before the new bell is cast overseas, artifacts and medals from 12 southern Colorado veterans will be melted down and put into the bronze bell.
Visitors can learn more about the veterans behind the artifacts and how they were chosen at the luncheon.
The bell is being cast in the Netherlands and is expected to be back in southern Colorado to be tolled at military funerals in the fall.
"When we toll the bell, of course, you know, we all feel it, and the family feels it. And they come up after the service, and not just the family, but all the members that came there will come up, and they're asking all kinds of questions," says Larry Peterson of the common reaction to the bell.
Peterson is a board member of the Honor Bell Foundation. He has worked for five years to raise funds to get a bell for southern Colorado.
He says as there is only one Honor Bell in the state currently, many veterans buried at Pikes Peak National Cemetery go without bell honors if there are other needs in Denver.
If you'd like to support the Honor Bell Foundation and see the artifacts from each veteran going into the bell, you can join the Honor Bell guard for lunch at MISSION BBQ at the intersection of Interquest and Vindicator Parkways in Colorado Springs.
They plan to meet Sunday, June 2 at 11:30 a.m. for an hour lunch and depart with the artifacts at 12:45 p.m. No RSVP is necessary.
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