War Memorial Park

Rosemont Elementary School kindergartner Amy Navarro plays a ball-toss game Tuesday at the school's Day in the Park at War Memorial Park in Martinsburg, W.Va.

Dallas Breeden, 10, of Martinsburg, W.Va., right, splashes his friend Isaac Miller, 9, in Tuscarora Creek Tuesday at War Memorial Park in Martinsburg.

Malachi Weedon, 2, of Martinsburg, W.Va., peeks through the tic-tac-toe rollers while playing Thursday in War Memorial Park in Martinsburg.

Miss Elaini Arthur, a classic country singer/songwriter, performs Thursday as a part of the summer concert series at War Memorial Park in Martinsburg, W.Va.

Enjoy Growing Older members, from left, Vincent Miller as the groom, Bill Henneberger as the minister and Marvin Nadenbousch as the bride, participate in a mock wedding ceremony Monday afternoon at War Memorial Park in Martinsburg, W.Va. Miller and Nadenbousch literally "tie the knot" before being pronounced "Man and Strife. "

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -AIDS Network will hold its annual AIDS Walk at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, May 20, at the corners of King and Queen streets to the main pavilion at War Memorial Park. Following the walk, the annual AIDS candlelight memorial will begin at 7 p.m. at the main pavilion of War Memorial Park. There will be a balloon release and refreshments. For information, call AIDS Network at 304-263-0738.

Breakfast ticketson sale in advance MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Tickets for the Labor Day breakfast at War Memorial Park in Martinsburg on Monday, may be purchased in advance for $20 at the War Memorial concession stand, Union Sales Dodge and Patterson's Drug Store. Tickets may be purchased at the door Monday for $25. Dog obedience class scheduled MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - The public is invited to a free, one-hour dog obedience class Saturday at 10 a.m. in War Memorial Park, Martinsburg, W.Va.

The quilt will be on display for the first time Sunday at the annual AIDS Walk and Candlelight Memorial Observance in Martinsburg.The event begins with a walk at 6:30 p.m. starting at the corner of King and Queen streets and ending at War Memorial Park. The memorial starts at 7 and includes a red balloon release, speakers, music and refreshments. The public is invited.

Wheaton Park, New Beginnings Christian Fellowship Church will hold Outreach Ministries from 1 to 3 p.m. this Sunday. There will be free music, a message, water, snacks and books. War Memorial Park, Martinsburg, W.Va., this Sunday, Pastor Ed Grove of Trinity United Methodist Church will lead park vesper services at 7 p.m. The services are sponsored by the Berkeley County Ministerial Association.

Rain that moved into the Tri-State area Friday evening forced the postponement of several area fireworks displays. Fireworks at War Memorial Park in Martinsburg, W.Va., and at Memorial Park in Chambersburg, Pa., have been rescheduled for Saturday night at 9:30. The fireworks display at Byron Memorial Park in Williamsport will not be held this weekend, according to Town Councilman Jeff Cline. He said the display will be Aug. 20 as a kickoff to the annual Williamsport Days celebration.

Tara Viands joined a parade of nearly 300 people who walked a three-mile loop around War Memorial Park on Saturday morning to raise money for the March of Dimes' March for Babies. “I walked because my daughters can't walk,” said Viands, a mother of two from Hedgesville, W.Va. On July 25, 2006, her twin daughters, Macy and Carly, were born six weeks prematurely at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va. Macy weighed 3 pounds, 6 ounces. Carly was born two minutes later weighing 3 pounds, 3 ounces.

Labor Day Breakfast in the Park, a 65-year-old Martinsburg tradition, continued Monday with more than 500 diners sitting down to breakfast under the park's main pavilion. “It's our single War Memorial Park fundraiser of the year,” said Bonn “Buzz” Poland, who for the umpteenth time organized the effort to get tickets out to the public. This year's breakfast, featuring steak or ham, cost $30. Proceeds will be used to replace the McKee Pavilion with a larger structure and pay for renovations to the bathhouse.

The preliminary hearing for a man accused of shooting another man and an 8-year-old girl at Martinsburg's Fourth of July celebration was continued for a second time Wednesday. Daniel Lee Herbert, 28, who has been incarcerated since shortly after the July 4 shooting, requested the continuance in Berkeley County Magistrate Court to allow his newly appointed defense attorney time to review his case. Herbert is charged with two counts of malicious wounding, three counts of wanton endangerment and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Every Labor Day for the last 35 years, Harold Catrow has arrived at War Memorial Park at 6 a.m. and hauled in the big gas grills to fire up the park's big annual fundraiser. Catrow, 74, a retired Martinsburg firefighter, recruits the 40 to 50 volunteers who work the annual steak-and-egg breakfast. The Monday event brings in $7,000 to $8,000 to the park's coffers, said Steve Catlett, executive director of the Berkeley County Parks and Recreation Board, which runs the park. "This is the park's biggest one-day fundraiser," he said.

"Every mountain between our two coasts, every island over which an American flag flies, every acre of farmland, every tree, every lake, every stream or field was paid for by a veteran. Let us never forget those who paid the price. "  Those words were part of the keynote speech given at Monday's Memorial Day program at War Memorial Park by Ann Brown, director of the Martinsburg VA Medical Center.  The rest of the ceremony was the somber Memorial Day ritual — the national anthem, presentation of the colors, the Pledge of Allegiance, wreath-laying and the rifle salute.

For the last two years, the annual Art and Earth Celebration at War Memorial Park drew 50 to 70 vendors and more than 1,000 patrons. This year Mother Nature intervened with cold wind and rain to keep vendors and patrons away.  By noon Saturday, fewer than 20 vendors and nonprofit groups had set up tables and tents, and some of the vendors were already leaving. None of the scheduled bands showed up, and few patrons could be seen checking out booths under the pavilion or braving the weather outside to visit the tents.

Enjoy Growing Older members, from left, Vincent Miller as the groom, Bill Henneberger as the minister and Marvin Nadenbousch as the bride, participate in a mock wedding ceremony Monday afternoon at War Memorial Park in Martinsburg, W.Va. Miller and Nadenbousch literally "tie the knot" before being pronounced "Man and Strife. "

Miss Elaini Arthur, a classic country singer/songwriter, performs Thursday as a part of the summer concert series at War Memorial Park in Martinsburg, W.Va.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Spending Independence Day at War Memorial Park is a tradition for many area families. Four generations of the Brown family of Jefferson County, W.Va., were celebrating July 4 at the park on Tennessee Avenue in Martinsburg. "Ever since I was little girl, this is where we spend the Fourth of July to celebrate our country," said Becky Sims of Charles Town, W.Va., who was grilling hamburgers for the family. Her mother, Anna Brown, 84, said she and her husband were married in 1944, and her in-laws introduced her to the park on Independence Day that year.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Sometime in the late 1940s, a group of Martinsburg-area residents, in an effort to honor Berkeley County's war dead, especially the 120 who died in World War II, built a city park in their honor. They called it War Memorial Park. Today, several monuments stand on the hill next to the one honoring those who fell in World War II. They list the names of the 41 who died in World War I, the 20 who lost their lives in Korea, the 15 in Vietnam and one each from Afghanistan, Iraq and Beirut.