A new veterans memorial to be dedicated this weekend has been a labor of love for the Dartmouth Veterans Advisory Committee. Members have been working on the project for six years.

The memorial is located at the gazebo near the Dartmouth Council on Aging building off Dartmouth Street.

Committee co-chair Norm Gunderson says the memorial includes several benches with the names of those Dartmouth residents killed in the line of duty, as well as bricks engraved with the names of those veterans who returned home or are still serving. The bricks were sold through the Advisory Committee as a way to raise money for the project.

Gunderson says the memorial should be supported by all residents. "Everyone has to have a piece of it, when you consider less than one percent of the population served in the military, it's becoming a forgotten group, so things like this have to exsist and they have to be supported."

"We're proud of it," said Gunderson. "it was something we were able to accomplish all through donations, and if it wasn't for the Council on Aging giving us that property, we probably would still be looking for a site."

Gunderson says the 10 a.m. dedication ceremony will be brief, but somber, and the public is invited.

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