A former mayor of Liberty, North Carolina led the establishment of a non-profit organization to establish veterans memorial in the town southeast of Greensboro. Terry Caviness, a builder by trade, organized a series of fundraisers in the community to design, landscape and install the Liberty Veterans Memorial and Gardens on city property adjacent to the Liberty Police Department. The memorial was opened Memorial Day 2018. Pathway Red pavers play a key role in the visitor experience.
Flags of all service branches fly on the memorial’s perimeter.
The project was a long time coming, as reported in the Asheboro Courier-Tribune:
“The Liberty Veterans Memorial and Gardens has been an inspiration of mine for many years,” Caviness said in 2013. “This memorial will be dedicated in honor of all veterans and their families for their military service to this country.”
“The focus was to build a memorial tribute for all military veterans,” Caviness added. “Individuals that have served or continue to serve our nation by protecting our freedoms on our homeland or abroad. Many fund-raisers have proved to be beneficial toward raising the needed funds for construction. Individuals and businesses have given generous contributions of needed dollars for something they believe in.
“Our board of directors and committee members have been the heart that has kept this fight moving forward by volunteering many hours of their personal time to prove we can do this.”
Caviness succeeded in designing an accessible and moving space of remembrance for all in the community. Flags of all branches of service are displayed around the paver path perimeter, interspersed with monuments to each branch. The path itself includes embedded markers dedicated to individual veterans. In the center of space is a small plaza of Pathway Red with dramatic polished granite monuments bearing the names of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who died defending the United States of America.
Paver pathways lead visitors around a series of service-specific memorials and connect to an inner plaza where granite monuments honor the memories of veterans.
“I promised to build a veterans memorial,” said Caviness. “A lawyer friend helped me establish the non-profit and I handpicked six directors to sit on its board. We organized steak suppers, 5k races, and fund drives over the years. We finally broke ground in 2017.”
A running bond pattern bound by concrete includes commemorative stones.
In May of this year color guards, honored veteran speakers and public officials dedicated the completed project.
We join Terry Caviness is thanking all US veterans for their service to our country.
A former mayor of the Town of Liberty established a non-profit to establish a new, expansive veterans memorial that leads visitors through a moving tribute to area soldiers.