WASHINGTON STATE FALLEN HEROES PROJECT

Since the tragedy of 9/11/2001, Washington State Fallen Heroes Banner Project was formed to bring honor and remembrance to fallen military service members with ties to Washington and Northern Idaho who were willing to sacrifice their all. We provide comfort and support to the families of the fallen; our Gold Star Families. We strive to promote awareness among the community of the sacrifices being made to protect our freedoms.
In 2007, after the loss of her son Cpl Darrel J Morris, Kim Cole was invited to attend Time of Remembrance in September. This event is held on Gold Star Families weekend in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. Kim RSVP’d to the event and then decided to go to a local sign shop to have a banner made with her son Darrel's picture and information. It was important for her to share her son in a way people could see. This idea to share Darrel with the group quickly turned into others asking her to make the same banner for their child. It started with one, then five, to our current count of 350 banners in just under 10 years.
Currently, we ship banners via Alaska Airlines thanks to their generous shipping grant. We support events from Portland to Long Beach Washington to Lewiston Idaho and all the way north to the Canadian border and even Alaska. There are events almost every weekend in the spring, summer and fall starting with the Daffodil Parade and ending on Veterans Day.
The Gold Star families submit a request for the banner to be made in honor of their loved one, and they send us the photo to be used and all the information to be printed. Once the parent approves the design, the banner is printed, as well as a magnet for the family and photo that is placed on our float. We mail the magnet to the family and place the banner in our storage unit until the next event. Each banner runs just under $150 to be printed and sewn, so we hold fundraisers throughout the year to ensure the families never have to pay to have their fallen Hero honored.
VFW’s, Gold Star Families, the National Guards around the state, and even people who have seen the banners at events request them for different community festivals. 10 years ago, the events were centered in Spokane but we now ship all over the area. For Memorial Day, 4th of July and Veterans day we have gotten to the point of having no banners left in our storage unit due to the demand around the states to include our Fallen in their celebrations. We also ask that our volunteers remember the names on the banners and go home to research the name and face they carry in parades, to get to know more about the person who served our country.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/dec/31/fallen-heroes-honors-servic...

http://www.khq.com/clip/13348048/2017-lilac-festival-torchlight-parade-p... (introduction starts around the 06:05 minute mark, and then our float and banner entry begins at the 07:30 minute mark of the video)