Groundbreaking Ceremony Planned For Veterans And Military Families Monument​

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — The Howard County Veterans Foundation will hold a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off construction of the Howard County Veterans and Military Families Monument.

The event will happen June 12 at 11 a.m. at the Vivian C. “Millie” Bailey Park at the Columbia Lakefront.

“After over 10 years of planning, designing and fundraising, we could not be more excited to begin building the monument,” said Robert Gillette, president of the Howard County Veterans Foundation. “When completed later this year, Howard County will have a place of reflection that honors the courage, service and sacrifice of the county’s military veterans and their families.”

At the groundbreaking, the Howard County Veterans Foundation will present monument renderings, the construction timeline and remarks from community leaders, including Howard County Executive Calvin Ball.

During the 2023 Veterans Day ceremony, Ball shared that the county would commit $1 million to jumpstart the construction of the Howard County Veterans Monument. Howard County has since provided $1.5 million in funding toward the foundation’s total fundraising goal of $2.75 million to design, build and maintain the monument. The foundation received $1.5 million in Maryland grants as well as private donations, exceeding the project’s goal.

The monument will feature a sculpture made of three symbolic stars in the Vivian C. “Millie” Bailey Park. The base star will represent the greater community that supports the military and their families when someone deploys. The blue star commemorates military service members and their families. A hollow gold star embedded in the blue star recognizes the hole left after the loss of service members who have died in the line of duty. A reflecting pond and bench will circle the sculpture and complete the monument, which will be engraved with words and quotes highlighting service, freedom and democracy.

Artist Larry Kirkland designed the monument and has been working on the Howard County Veterans and Military Families Monument since 2017.

According to the Howard County Office of Veterans and Military Families, Howard County’s population includes more than 14,000 residents commuting to jobs at Fort George G. Meade and more than 1,000 students in the county’s public schools who have a parent on active duty.