National EMS Memorial Service Procession to honor Columbus firefighter with stop Saturday
The National EMS Memorial Service Procession is expected to make a stop Saturday morning at the Columbus Firefighters Memorial at Battelle Riverfront Park, located Downtown along the Scioto River.
Columbus firefighter Frank Duff, who died in 2021 after contracting COVID-19 in the line of duty, will be recognized during the event scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at the memorial at 25 Marconi Boulevard, near the end of West Gay Street.
The coast-to-coast memorial procession, named "Moving Honors," began in Riverside, California and will visit more than two dozen other states before ending Thursday in Arlington, Virginia with the National Emergency Medical Services Memorial Service and Weekend of Honor. The procession, first launched in 2021, recognizes EMS first responders who have died in the line of duty.
The Columbus Firefighters Memorial, which commemorates firefighters who died while serving, was designed by Ed Nothaker and erected in 1958. It features an eternal flame on top of Greek columns, and , installed in Columbus, Ohio's Battelle Riverfront Park, in the United States. It was erected in 1958 and features an eternal flame on top of Greek columns, along with a bell, stone tablets with the names of the fallen, and limestone benches.
The cross-country route will also transport the National EMS' mobile memorial, the “Tree of Life,” which will be unveiled at the start of the Weekend of Honor in Arlington. Each year, the names of new EMS honorees who have died in the line of duty are added to the memorial.
A wreath-laying ceremony, a memorial bike ride and adult grief workshop are among the schedule of events making up this year's Weekend of Honor.
A map of the procession's coast-to-coast route can be found online.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: National EMS Memorial Service Procession to make stop Sat. in Columbus
