The parade ran from the Tygart Valley Mall on Harrison Avenue and on to Randolph Avenue, before doubling back to the monument’s final destination at Veterans Memorial Park.

The monument was created in honor of Gold Star Families, those who have lost loved ones in the line of service.

Several Elkins City Police patrol units and a group of veterans on motorcycles escorted a semi-truck carrying the monument during the parade.

Once the parade arrived at the park, Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco, Gold Star families, veterans’ organizations, community members, girls from Rhododendron Girls State, and representatives from the Woody Williams Foundation stood by to watch the monument be unloaded.

The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley A large contingency of students from Rhododendron Girls State made their way from the Davis & Elkins College campus to Railroad Avenue to watch the delivery of the new Gold Star Families Memorial Monument on Tuesday morning.

“We had a fantastic celebration for the Gold Star Memorial Monument arriving in Elkins,” Marco told The Inter-Mountain at the scene. “We had all the girls from Rhododendron Girls State here and they definitely raised the energy level with their cheering and singing. What an amazing opportunity it was for them to be in Elkins the day we are unloading the memorial.

“We had a lot of veterans come out on their motorcycles today and help lead the monument through town – they are very appreciative that we are able to do this. We want to make sure that generations to come understand the meaning of the Gold Star, and we want to keep the Woody Williams dream alive. His foundation has been great to work with.” 

The Woody Williams Foundation is a charitable organization that encourages, with the assistance of the American public and community leaders, establishing permanent Gold Star Families Memorial Monuments in communities throughout the United States. To date, the organization has installed 140 monuments across the U.S.

The Gold Star Families Memorial, which is composed of a two-sided black granite monument and three granite benches, was unloaded by a crane truck and set aside for workers to piece together. The monument will be covered until the official dedication ceremony on July 5 at 11 a.m.  

“July 5th is going to be an amazing day when we finally unveil the monument,” Marco said Tuesday. “We are very excited about that and hopefully we have the same type of weather we had today. It’s an amazing thing for us to be able to honor those folks who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and let their families know we haven’t forgotten about them.”