Springfield to hold 77th annual Memorial Day ceremony at Veterans Plaza

Springfield will gather at Veterans Plaza for its 77th annual Memorial Day ceremony, a morning program built around remembrance, military honors and local participation. The ceremony is set for 9 a.m. Monday, May 25, at the plaza on the northeast corner of Mohawk Boulevard and I Street, across from McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center, and it is free and open to the public.

The City of Springfield and American Legion Post #40 are organizing the event, with help from a wide network of partners that includes Willamette Leadership Academy, Summit Church of Springfield, Springfield Elks Lodge #2145, the Elks Emblem Club, Willamalane Park and Recreation District, Emerald Armory, Boy Scouts Troop 179 and the United States Air Force 123rd Fighter Squadron. The program will feature remarks from American Legion Post 40 Commander and Air Force veteran Nick Gillaspie, Mayor Sean VanGordon and Lane County Commissioner David Loveall, a Navy veteran.

The ceremony will also include a battlefield cross display and flag presentation by Willamette Leadership Academy, a wreath-laying led by the Springfield Elks Lodge and the Elks Emblem Club, and a performance of Taps by Tom Schwetz. City officials say the observance is meant to honor the men and women who died serving the United States, while also giving Springfield families a public place to reflect on sacrifice and service.

That sense of shared civic memory has been built into Veterans Plaza for decades. Willamalane says the Springfield Vietnam Veterans Memorial was first constructed there in 1968 and updated in 2016 with input from Vietnam Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Veterans for Peace. The plaza now includes a granite monument listing Springfield military veterans who gave their lives, The Lionesses women’s memorial installed in 2017 and a rose garden added in 2018 by the American Rosie the Riveter Association to honor women on the World War II home front.

Springfield’s Memorial Day observance has become a steady local tradition, not a one-day ritual. The city held its 76th annual ceremony at Veterans Plaza in 2025, and more than 200 people gathered near the Women Veterans Memorial there in 2024 for a Memorial Day tribute honoring Airman Trinity Reinhart and other fallen service members. In Lane County, where an estimated 23,869 veterans live among 381,584 residents, the ceremony connects older generations who served with younger residents learning how Springfield remembers its own.