Aurora's Colorado Freedom Memorial to hold ceremony ahead of Memorial Day

As Memorial Day approaches, the Colorado Freedom Memorial officials in Aurora are honoring generations of fallen veterans Saturday.

The ceremony, in its 11th year, will be presented by the City of Aurora and the Colorado Freedom Memorial Foundation and will include a variety of activities and tours of the memorial throughout the day, according to a foundation news release.

The event begins at 8 a.m. with a free pancake breakfast and music from the Colorado National Guard 101st Army Band at the memorial site, 756 Telluride St., Aurora, according to the foundation.

At 10 a.m., the ceremony itself will begin with an F-16 flyover by the 140th Wing of the Colorado Air National Guard, a presentation of a relic from the USS Arizona, and recognition of all WWII and Vietnam Veterans present.

Following the ceremony, the memorial will be open to guided, or self-guided, tours and the foundation will give out free roses to lay at the memorial.

The event is free and open to the public, but the foundation will be accepting donations.

Rick Crandall, the president of the Colorado Freedom Memorial Foundation, said the ceremony will give people a place to remember what Memorial Day weekend is all about.

There are more than 6,200 names on the memorial of Coloradans from every county in the state killed in military action since Colorado became a state, Crandall said.

Of those whose names are on the memorial, almost 4,000 of them never had their remains returned home, he said, so there are many families who never had a gravesite to honor their loved ones before the memorial was built.

"When we built the Colorado Freedom Memorial and had their names put on the memorial, it became a bit of a cemetery or a headstone for people who didn't have that to go to all of those years," Crandall said. "It's a pretty special place where lots of people come and ask wonderful questions about service and sacrifice."

They expect to see about 1,000 or more people attend Saturday given attendance at past events, he said.

"It's been kind of wonderful to watch over the years how people have come to embrace the Colorado Freedom Memorial and have a real understanding of just what it means and why it's important," Crandall said.