Sign dedicates I-70/Cave Springs interchange to soldier's memory
First in Heroes Way program erected at I-70 and Cave Springs
The Interstate 70 interchange at Cave Springs has become a Heroes Way, dedicated to the memory of a St. Charles native killed two years ago while serving in Iraq.
http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2010/01/30/stcharles/news/0131east-hero0.txt
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By Sarah Whitney
Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:17 AM CST
Lance Cpl. Drew Weaver, who graduated from St. Charles West High School in 2005, was 20 years old when a gunman's bullet took his life during a firefight in Iraq's Al Anbar province on Feb. 21, 2008.
A memorial sign was installed Jan. 19 on both the eastbound and westbound lanes of I-70 honoring Weaver's memory. It reads: "Heroes Way, LCPL Drew Weaver, Marines."
Wes Weaver, Drew's grandfather, said the Heroes Way Memorial Sign Program, which was passed into law in 2009, was a way for him and his wife to publicly memorialize their grandson.
He hopes that when motorists read the sign, they will tell their children about the ultimate sacrifice that his grandson, who is buried on the north side of the interchange in Baue Memorial Gardens, gave on their behalf.
"It represents a young man who volunteered to go to war for their benefit and he lost his life," said Weaver, of St. Charles.
Two years ago after his grandson's funeral, Weaver, a World War II veteran, said he remembered several young people approaching him and asking about the War on Terror, what it was about and why anyone would volunteer to go to war.
"They claimed no one had told them about the war, how they didn't teach it in school," he said. "I hope that this will be a reminder to all young children that such things exist. He's a 20-year-old boy who gave his life for his country."
The sign is the first Heroes Way memorial sign to be erected in the state as far as Missouri Department of Transportation spokesman Andrew Gates knows, he said.
The program, which Gates compared to the Memorial Highway and Bridge naming program, allows interchanges along Missouri interstates to be named after veterans who were killed in action in Iraq or Afghanistan on or after Sept. 11, 2001. Close family members, such as a sibling, spouse or child, may make the request to MoDOT, he said. He added, however, that the $2,200 cost to install and maintain the signs can be supplied by the family, a church, a veterans group or other organizations.
For more information about the program or to request an application, visit www.modot.gov/services/HighwayNaming.htm.
"There have been a lot of requests for the application," Gates said. "Now it's just going to be a matter of time before there's more (signs erected) across the state."