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PHILIPPI – Battlers Knob is set to celebrate Barbour County veterans with a "Veterans Day Salute" on Saturday which will feature a 5K Race, a Field of Flags Ceremony, a Quilts of Valor Presentation and more.
Battlers Knob is inviting the community to come together on the former campus of Alderson Broaddus University for a series of celebratory events as part of the "Veterans Day Salute Honoring All Who Served."
"We've done many community events since (March)," Battlers Knob's Lisa Weese told The Inter-Mountain. "That's one of our goals is to be involved in the community and to kind of help offset the loss of AB... The Veterans Day thing just came up because we all have an affinity for veterans, especially veterans in Barbour County, and we wanted to do something that acknowledged and saluted them."
Starting off the festivities will be a 5K Race around the former campus. The race site will open at 8 a.m., with the race beginning at 10 a.m. After the race, the community is invited to participate in a Post-Race Community Celebration that will include games, vendors, informational tents, food and drinks. An air-soft shooting competition will also be taking place during the post-race celebration.
Around 2 p.m. a Field of Flags Ceremony will feature more than 1,000 American flags being placed in a green space in the middle of the former campus. The ceremony will honor the roughly 1,011 veterans who live in Barbour County. West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, a Barbour County native and veteran, is expected to give a speech during the event.
Weese said House Representative Chris Phillips, whose district covers all of Barbour County and part of Upshur County, purchased and donated the more than 1,000 Americans flags that will be used in the ceremony.
At 3 p.m. Battlers Knob, in partnership with the West Virginia division of Quilts of Valor, will hold a Quilts of Valor Presentation at Burbick Hall. The presentation will pay tribute to 25 Barbour County combat veterans for their service and a "unique patriotic" quilt that was crafted "just for them."
"The public is invited to all of it," Weese said. "The public is invited from 8 a.m., when we open up the race site, all the way up till the Quilts of Valor Presentation at 3 p.m. The public is welcome to come and observe and participate and take part in it."
When asked if the "Veterans Day Salute Honoring All Who Served" event was going to become an annual tradition, Weese said yes.
"We tend to think that it's going to be an annual thing," Weese said. "We're hoping that all of it is an annual thing, the Veterans Day Salute, the 5K. Everything that we do, we're trying to create some annual events so that people have something to look forward to and so that we have ongoing activity for (Battlers Knob)."
For more information, contact Lisa Weese at 304-591-2260 or Battlers Knob Property Manager Cherri Sturm at 304-613-7180.