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SANDY, UTAH 2003
On September 11 — 15, 2003 Colonial Flag, Sandy
City and the Sandy Exchange Club sponsored a Healing Field for the
second year in Sandy Utah. Sandy was the original site of the very
first Healing Field on September 11, 2002. It was estimated that over 50,000 visitors per day walked through the two acre field of flags in front of City Hall.
This was the first year that the "soldier's field" was introduced
to the program. The soldier's field included one flag for each fallen
coalition soldier in the war on terrorism since 9/11/01.
The flag were displayed with yellow ribbons showing the name rank and
home town of the soldier. The soldier's field grows daily so that the
9/11 field never happens again.
Flags were
sold to raise money for the prevention of child abuse and to support
local military families with loved ones deployed in the middle east.
Flags are still available in the online keepsake store at www.healingfield.org
If
you live in Sandy or even along the Wasatch Front you would most likely
know about or even have seen a Healing Field in person in the past
couple of years. Covered by TV, Radio, and Newspaper
across the valley most Utahans are aware of the field and the
spectacular visual effect of so many flags in perfect rows.
Sandy
City was the first city to recognize Patriots Day with a field of 3412
flags on the two acre field to the south of Sandy City Hall in 2002 on
the one year anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. Now
known and displayed across the country as the Healing Field the
memorial program has grown to 5 cities in 2003 to a planned 40 to 50
cities in 2004.
Thanks to our local business sponsors
Both
Albertson’s stores in Sandy Utah joined together to provide drinks and
cookies to the 2000 or more volunteers who showed up to help set the
field up. Jim Lund, General manager of one of the stores was overwhelmed with the honor to participate in the event. His
company has expressed interest in not only participating in the Sandy
event again next year but the possibility of being a national sponsor
for years to come.
Travis
Bonino, owner of Salsa Leedos Mexican Grill in Sandy provide a free
buffet to the volunteers for the first two hours of the set up of the
Sandy Field. I wanted to give something back to the community that supports me”, said Bonino. “Of
course I would do it for Paul Swenson alone. He is a great man and he
did this [the healing field] unselfishly and with total humility. If he’ll have us, we want to do it again next year.”
Mountain States Industrial Services provided a bucket truck for photographers could get a bird’s eye view of the field. Some
of the best and most impressive photographs of the field this year were
accomplished thanks to Mountain States unselfish donation.
New this year to the Healing Field was a Field of Honor. This field consisted of one flag for each fallen coalition soldier in the fight on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. The
field started out with 426 flags at the time of set up on the evening
of September 10th and ended with an additional 6 flags by the end of
the event on September 15th. Participants form the
Army Reserve Unit out of Ft. Douglas performed an emotional ceremony
each night at 5:00 pm to add the newest flags from the tragic deaths
that are occurring on a daily basis in the war on terrorism.
“Those
young men and women were alive at the beginning of the event”, pointed
out Liz Swenson of Colonial Flag. “In four short days six more
Americans gave their lives for the fight for freedom.”
The soldier’s field was co-hosted by Unishippers as local business sponsor and the Army Reserves out of Ft. Douglas. Unishippers
provided discount freight service and full color banners for the trucks
that delivered the 5 Healing Fields to host cities across the country, Debbie
Brown, Communications Program Manager for Unishippers at company
headquarters in Salt Lake City said that they want Unishippers to play
a major roll again next year as a national sponsor of the program.
IFor information on sponsoring a Healing Field in your Community
email lori@healingfield.org call 800-782-0500.
Last Updated Tuesday, January 24 2006 @ 01:00 PM GMT-7 
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