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Kalamazoo Marks The 100th Anniversary Of The End Of World War One

Virginia Mayo
/
Associated Press

More than 130,000 men and women from Michigan served in World War I. About 2,500 of them came from Kalamazoo.

"And 114 of those young men never returned home," says Elizabeth Kraatz of the Lucinda Hinsdale Stone chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Update: A program scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Rose Park has been moved indoors due to weather. See below for details. 

Several groups are holding memorials Sunday to mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice, which ended the war. Ceremonies will take place in downtown Kalamazoo in the evening and afternoon, including a wreath-laying at 5:30 pm at the Memorial to Fallen Soldiers near Bronson Park and a luminarium that begins at the same time in the park and continues until 9pm. St. Luke's Episcopal Church will hold a Service of Prayer for Peace at 4 pm

Update: program scheduled for Sunday after 2pm will be held at Arcadia Ales. It will include historical talks and music. It was to be held at Rose Park, but has been moved due to expected weather conditions. 

The First World War took the lives of about 117,000 Americans and an estimated 20 million people in all. But Kraatz suggests that in the United States, the war is sometimes forgotten.

"For one night, we will be making Bronson Park at the heart of our community a glowing memorial to World War I," she said.

Churches around the country will ring their bells at 11am, the hour the Armistice took effect.

"Community groups and others are asked to toll their bells slowly, 21 times, with a five-second interval between the tolls. Twenty-one tolls of a bell symbolizes the nation’s highest honor," Kraatz says.

Individuals with smartphones can download a free "Bells of Peace" app that will toll at the same hour. 

Sehvilla Mann joined WMUK’s news team in 2014 as a reporter on the local government and education beats. She covered those topics and more in eight years of reporting for the Station, before becoming news director in 2022.
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