SEATTLE, WA – The Garden of Remembrance, located at Benaroya Hall on the corner of Second Avenue and University Street in downtown Seattle, will be the site of a brief Memorial Day ceremony on Monday, May 27, at 10 a.m. to honor the Washington State citizens who fell in service to their country since last Memorial Day. The names Taylor Galvin and Leandro Jasso have been engraved on the granite walls of the Garden of Remembrance in advance of the ceremony.
Taylor Galvin, 34, was from Spokane, Washington and first enlisted in the Army in 2003. He was assigned to Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment based in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Galvin passed on August 20, 2018 as a result of injuries sustained when his helicopter crashed in Sinjar, Iraq. The incident is under investigation. However, it was last reported that enemy fire was not suspected to have caused the helicopter crash.
Leandro Jasso, 25, was deployed in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. A native of Leavenworth, Washington, Jasso enlisted in the Army in 2012 and was a team leader assigned to 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. He passed on November 24, 2018 after being wounded by small arms fire while conducting combat operations in Khash Rod district, in Afghanistan’s Nimruz province.
The observance will include a presentation of wreaths, reading of the names and a performance by the Contrasts Quartet following the tolling of a bell. The ceremony is sponsored by the Garden of Remembrance Advisory Board, the Northwest Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Gold Star Mothers of Washington and Benaroya Hall.
The Garden of Remembrance Advisory Board would like to thank The Seattle Green Spaces Coalition for their special donation of live trees in honor of this event.
The Garden of Remembrance is an official state memorial to more than 8,000 Washington State citizens who have given their lives in the service of our country since 1941, including World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the post-Vietnam conflicts. Every year on Memorial Day, families are invited to gather at the Garden to honor their fallen loved ones. Some bring photos and other mementos to leave at the wall while others create “rubbings” of the names with pencil and paper.
The Garden of Remembrance is a half-acre, L-shaped space designed by late world-renowned landscape architect Robert Murase and lies along the south and west sides of Benaroya Hall. Memorial walls of granite, lined by slender reflecting pools, are oriented so that the names face the western sun. In addition to the walls, excerpts from poems honor veterans who died in our nation’s wars; lines from letters remind us of the personal connections with home that each name represents. The reflecting pools honor those missing in action, and a fountain honors those who died in peacetime and other national service. The golden oak tree that centers the Garden symbolizes remembrance of the cycle of life and honors the fallen and their families. The Garden was dedicated on July 4, 1998.