WWI centennial kickoff is April 8

Old State House event 2 days after Broadway Bridge salute

The Arkansas World War I Centennial Commemoration Committee finalized plans Wednesday for the Old State House Museum to host a kickoff event April 8 in observance of the centennial year of the United States' entry into what is known as the Great War.

Festivities will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m. outside the Old State House, 300 W. Markham St. in downtown Little Rock. Gov. Asa Hutchinson is to speak at 10:30 a.m., said Mark Christ, a committee member and spokesman for the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Live music and living-history performances portraying World War I soldiers and Red Cross nurses, as well as history discussions, will be part of the program, said Georganne Sisco, education director for the Old State House. In case of rain, events will move inside. The observance will be free and open the public.

"I'm hoping for good weather," Sisco told the committee. "It should be a lot of fun."

The United States became involved in World War I on April 6, 1917, when the U.S. House of Representatives concurred with the U.S. Senate's move two days earlier to support a declaration of war on Germany. President Woodrow Wilson had asked a joint session of Congress for the declaration April 2. The war ended Nov. 11, 1918.

On April 6, the anniversary of the war declaration, the new Broadway Bridge will be dedicated in honor of veterans of all U.S. wars in a short ceremony on a parking lot near the North Little Rock end of the rebuilt bridge. The original Broadway Bridge was dedicated to World War I veterans.

The bridge will remain open to traffic, since the ceremony will be away from traffic lanes, the committee was told.

The new $98.4 million Broadway Bridge, which spans the Arkansas River between Little Rock and North Little Rock, reopened for its first full day March 2. The bridge had been closed since Sept. 28 for the construction.

In conjunction with the centennial observance, the committee also is partnering with the Arkansas Forestry Commission to plant a memorial tree in each of the state's 75 counties in observance of the state's contributions to the war and the war's effects on the state.

The Forestry Commission has secured 100 northern red oak trees that can be used, but details of how the tree-planting program will be implemented haven't yet been decided, Christ said.

More than 2,100 Arkansans in the military died during World War I, out of more than 72,000 from the state who served during the war. The state provided several vital resources for the war effort, including cotton for uniforms and bandages, and hardwoods for rifle stocks. Camp Pike in North Little Rock, now Camp Robinson, was built during 1917 as an Army training camp and for infantry replacement.

Civilians on the home front, especially women, also contributed their time and talents by filling the jobs of men who were fighting and performing other tasks to help the war effort.

The World War I committee was created to recognize and remember the state's contributions to the war. More information on the committee and other events is available online at www.wwiarkansas.com.

Hutchinson established the committee after the United States World War I Centennial Commission selected Fayetteville native Joe Weishaar, a University of Arkansas, Fayetteville graduate, from 350 entries to design a national World War I monument.

Metro on 03/18/2017

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