The 2026 services are now a completed part of your Memorial Foundation History. Looking ahead please save the dates of October 2nd and 3rd 2027. There is one extra note of importance regarding next year. It marks the 25th anniversary of the memorial and Sunday service. Your memorial was dedicated May 18, 2002. The Candlelight service was added two years later and will mark its 23rd service. Planning and prep are already underway. We are planning to live stream both services next year vs. just Sunday morning, so please keep that in mind.
The early look at potential numbers for the 2027 services are unfortunately looking to be equal to or greater than 2026. That makes everyone very sad, but the Foundation stands ready to honor those who have served in the Fire Service and passed.
Your Foundation was able to add some additional supporting elements with the 2026 services. The program book featured several of those. The first inside page started with “Remembering the 25-year anniversary of 9/11” and included the history of our statue. Number one now resides at the FDNY Training Academy. Number two is in Kingdom City. The Brick and Wall engraving summary was listed in the program book. There were 43 names added to the service walls and 48 bricks engraved. An etching page was added allowing for wall and brick names to be etched into the program book. Thank you is not said often enough, so service sponsors were added in an “Acknowledgment” page.
A call out for antique fire apparatus resulted in a total of 7 units for display Saturday and Sunday. We hope the annual number continues to grow. Two additional units were preliminary but had to be cancelled. Hopefully we will see them next year.
Two Comfort Dogs attended both services for the first time by invitation. Boaz from the Lake area and Thomas from Concordia. The comments from families and visitors were very positive.
We now have a newly designed Memorial Flag which has our kneeling firefighter in the center. It was raised for the first time for the Candlelight service.
The Foundation has a Challenge Coin and revealed for the first time with the weekend services. I know this has been a long time coming, but it is finally here. Proceeds from the coin will be used for the Museum Project. Our next public appearance with the new coins beside the November FFAM Board meeting will be Winter Fire School.
We honored 107 Service Level names from 2025 and the two years previous having missed a few names. Some of those 107 names have pending administrative reviews with the DOJ for classification as Line of Duty. Once confirmed, those families will be invited back for presentation of full LODD Honors. Next year we will recognize 2026 Service Level names and any anyone missed from 2025 or 2024. Five Line of Duty Names were honored in the 2026 service:
- Captain Andrew Donner – Ft. Osage Fire Protection Dist. – Last Call August 27, 2019
- Heavy Rigging Specialist Larry Duncan, Missouri Task Force One – Last Call January 15, 2025
- Fire Chief Garry Moore, Whitewater Fire Prot. Dist. – Last Call April 2, 2025
- Firefighter Lee Kraus, St. Louis Fire Dept. – Last Call July 1, 2025
- Shift Commander Jackson Warren – Butler County Fire Prot. Dist. – Last Call March 6, 2026
The Historical Preservation Foundation (Museum) was honored to have received a bell from the America 250 Missouri Commission. I will defer your attention to that separate article in this magazine. As I said earlier – thank you needs to be said as those blessings occur. Thank you, Governor Kehoe, Commission VP, Pat Thompson and the America 250 Missouri Commissioners for this generous gift honoring Missouri First Responders.
A small corner wall, doors and signs preserving the old Missouri State Fair Fire Station has been reconstructed in the Museum using original materials removed from the station before it was demolished last year. A picture is provided with this article of how it turned out. Thank you, Tracy Gray and crew, for getting this materials saved, relocated and reconstructed.
Your opinion matters to us. If you have any observations, recommendations or believe we have missed something of importance, please contact a Foundation Director or use one of the options listed below.
If you need to contact us, we have several options. For general information, engraving and shopping, our website is mofirememorial-museum.org/ Our mailing address is 5550 Dunn Drive, Kingdom City, MO 65262. For email, please use info@mofirememorial-museum.org This is a shared platform in checking of messages, so please give it a few days to respond. If it is urgent or you prefer to save time, you may call my mobile at 314 709 0760.
Thank you for your time and continued support of your memorial and future museum.
FFAM
