Tonya Evans, a co-founder of the American Fallen Warrior Memorial Foundation, today said that City Park in Kansas City, Kan., has been chosen as the site for the 20-acre national memorial. (Staff photo)

   A group building a national veterans’ memorial in Kansas City, Kan., has narrowed down the six Kansas City, Kan., site choices, and has selected City Park on Park Drive and South 26th Street in Kansas City, Kan, as its first choice.

   While the site is not yet final, the American Fallen Warrior Memorial Foundation is now focusing on the City Park 20-acre site, said foundation CEO Tonya Evans at a news conference today at City Park. The park has 90 acres, and 20 acres of it would be donated by the UG to the group for the memorial site.

   The next step will be surveying the land to see if it works for the site, she added.

   Five other sites in Kansas City, Kan., were shown to the foundation, including a site near the closed Kansas City, Kan., Forest View landfill near Kaw Drive and 48h, not far from Indian Springs. Evans said the group looked at that site, and while it liked the location near I-70 and I-635, the group’s advisers told her there could be some expense involved because of the likelihood of past underground mining in the area.

   Evans said the group was looking for certain qualities in a site: land on the I-70 corridor, 20 acres available, and suitable for the development of the project. The site at City Park also is close to I-70 and I-635.

   “Being in the center of the country allows everyone to come here,” Evans said. The national memorial is expected to draw veterans and their families from around the nation to honor those who were killed while serving their country.

   Evans and Kathryn Taylor are co-founders of the American Fallen Warrior Memorial. The memorial honors those in the U.S. military who have died since the start of the Gulf War to the present time.

   Beginning their project in March 2011, Evans and Taylor first were inspired by the stories of six soldiers from Utah who died. 

   An architect from Florida, Norman Schwartz, has done an initial design for the memorial. A five-pointed granite star with twin towers will be part of the design. When it is built, the memorial will include a bronze plaque wall with photos and information about the soldiers who are honored. The plaques will include smart phone codes that will give more information about each soldier.

   “Not only do we want to honor warriors, we want to celebrate their lives,” Evans said. “Our love for their families and what they’ve done for us is first in our minds and hearts.”

   Admission to the memorial would be free and open to the public, Evans said. That means that those residents who currently walk through City Park could continue to go the same area without paying any fees.

   Evans said the group hopes to break ground on Sept. 11, 2012, for the $30 million memorial. The group is currently raising funding for the memorial, and has hopes of receiving major corporate donations, she said. 

   The group is also raising funds through individual donations for memorial bricks, a coin campaign, and other memorials, and Evans said contributions will pay for annual operations.

   Recently signing on with the fundraising effort was country music star Collin Raye, Evans said. He has donated the proceeds of his hit, “A Soldier’s Prayer,” to the foundation.

   For more information, visit the foundation's website at http://afwmf.org.

An artist's sketch of the proposed American Fallen Warrior Memorial monument proposed for Kansas City, Kan.