May 23 2022
Bill Barlow | The Press of Atlantic City
NORTH WILDWOOD — As the Jersey Shore gets ready to celebrate summer over Memorial Day weekend, veterans organizations prepare for more somber events throughout the area, including a groundbreaking for a planned memorial honoring Gold Star families.
Gold Star families are those who have lost a loved one on active duty in any branch of the American military.
According to Bill Davenport, one of the organizers of the effort to bring a memorial to North Wildwood, there are Gold Star families living in the area.
“We say that it’s a club that you never want to belong to,” Davenport said.
The granite memorial is planned for Spruce and New York avenues, close to the North Wildwood Veterans Monument. That is where the community usually gathers to observe Memorial Day.
The groundbreaking is set for 10 a.m. on Monday, May 30.
Davenport, a Marine veteran who served in Vietnam, is the senior vice commander at VFW Post 5941 in North Wildwood. He lives in Middle Township but described himself as “a Wildwood kid.”