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Gainesville residents will be getting to the core of Memorial Day is all about this weekend. While some will remember the verterans of wars past, others will pay tribute to soldiers lost in the current Iraq War. Veterans for Peace will be displaying more than 4,500 tombstones from dawn on May 24th through dusk on May 26th on Eighth Avenue east of 34th Street as part of the Memorial Day Weekend. The event is meant to remember those who have died in the wars in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003. Veterans for Peace press coordinator Jessica Newman said the the visual impact of the tombstones is meant to convey the reality of the 4500 deaths in a visual.

Each tombstone will have the soldiers name, date of death, age, branch of service, rank and hometown. The tombstones will be arranged by date of death. Local soldiers will have American flags on their tombstone to be more easily findable. There will also be on site an information table to direct the public to specific tombstones.

In addition , there will be posters on the other side of the street depicting the cost of war and a peace Ribbon which is a collection of panels sewn by people who have lost loved ones in Iraq or Afghanistan or for people who have died there