BEND, OR -- The City of Bend honored its heroes this weekend, at a ceremony celebrating its Purple Heart City designation. Dick Tobiason organized Saturday's event at the Bend Hero's Memorial and was the driving force behind the proclomation. "We're about the fifth city in Oregon to be declared a Purple Heart City, and about the 900th in the U.S.," Tobiason says. "It was something I did after seeing other cities do it."
City Councilor Casey Roats read the proclomation declaring the designation, and told KBND News he was honored to be involved. "When we were asked for a volunteer among [the council], I just raised my hand very quickly," Roats says. "I had members of my family growing up -- grandparents and my dad were in the service -- so it seemed like taking a little bit of time out of my day to honor those who have given so much for us was the very least we could do."
Tobiason says Saturday's ceremony meant a lot to more than just the 20 Purple Heart recipients in attendence. "There were people who came by afterwards and saw what we were doing. One couple came by and said, 'My dad was in Korea and won a Purple Heart, what's going on here?' And so we told him, and he said, 'Isn't it wonderful that our community respects our veterans and even our wounded and killed veterans?'"
The Purple Heart Monument at Brooks Park honors 450 Bend veterans eligible for the award, which is the nation's oldest military medal. ODOT will install 5 signs at Bend's city limits during the next couple of weeks. The project was sponsored by the Bend Heroes Foundation. Tobiason says no taxpayer dollars were used.
