FREEPORT — Freeport’s Riverfront Park will take on a new look this fall, and the change will honor the area’s veterans.

In the next few months, more than 530 bricks will be laid in a plaza in the park, each brick bearing the name of a member of the military, thanking them for their service and honoring their sacrifice.

The project was spearheaded by Donna Gardner and Freeport VFW Post 6648.

“We’re trying to honor any veteran who served,” Gardner said. “We want to make this really a dedicated site for all veterans.”

The clay pavers will be engraved with the names of veterans, their dates of service, their branch of the military and whether they served in war or peacetime. The memorial will be dedicated on Veterans Day.

“The goal is to tell the veteran’s story in 45 letters or less,” said Gardner, a retired commander in the Naval Nurse Corps. “To me, it’s a labor of love. I think it’s going to be fabulous.”

The idea took shape in 2014 when the junior high school closed. Residents wanted to move a military marker on the school site and started a fundraising campaign among local businesses to pay for its relocation to the park. Soon after it was moved on Memorial Day 2015, the idea of the plaza was born.

The plaza will contain 3,000 bricks, 2,500 of which can be engraved.

Bob Ranieri, owner of Freeport Monumental Works, will replace blank bricks in the plaza with engraved ones as the orders come in.

Steve Gardner, Donna Gardner’s husband and a retired Navy nurse, said the Freeport area has a rich history of military service, with the Freeport cemeteries bearing memorials from every single war with American involvement.

“The Freeport military path goes back to the Revolutionary War,” Donna Garnder said. “The entire area has a huge history. That was part of the drive.”

Clair Kestner, commander of the VFW post, said the post will continue to sell the bricks until they are all engraved.

“I’m pleased about the response,” he said. “I hope it keeps on going.”

Kathleen Huth was starting a family genealogy search when she heard of the brick project.

The Freeport woman has had four generations of her family in military service beginning with her father, Charles B. Huth in World War II, all the way back to her great-great-grandfather, Casper Easley, who marched in the Revolutionary War.

“Their service affords us the freedoms we enjoy today,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to make a permanent memorial to my family members.”

Jim Laux of Sarver, purchased three bricks to honor his uncle, a World War I veteran, and also one to commemorate his own 20-year service in the military.

“They put their country ahead of themselves and did what was necessary to protect the freedom we have now and hopefully our children will have,” he said.

Sue (Dougherty) Gahagan recalls her mother’s worry about the safe return of Gahagan’s brothers from Vietnam.

“I remember her getting down on her knees and praying for them to come back safely,” she said.

Her family had five brothers who served. The large family — there were 15 children — had someone in military service from 1958 to 1972. Gahagan purchased one brick for each brother.

Bricks purchased by Sept. 1 will be in place for the dedication in November, but the bricks will continue to be sold after that date.

Bricks can be purchased for $40 through the VFW Website at www.freeportVFW6648.com or at the Freeport Library.

For more information, call the VFW at 724-295-2280 or the library at 724-295-3616.