BUFFALO, W.Va. –Fifty-five apple trees representing the counties in the state now stand as a Living Memorial for those lives lost post 9/11 in Putnam County.

Gold Star Mother Teresa Brown hanging her son, Jeremy Brown’s, dog tag (Photo: Toyota WV)

Toyota West Virginia, along with the Gold Star Mothers of West Virginia and the state’s Department of Agriculture, held a dedication ceremony Tuesday morning at the Toyota West Virginia Biodiversity Park in Buffalo, to help celebrate the lives of the fallen servicemen and women.

This idea was started in 2016, by the Gold Star Mothers, because there’s not many monuments for those who died after the September 11 attacks.

The first apple orchard dedicated was in 2017 in the Canaan Valley; this one becomes the 12th apple orchard.

Gold Star Mother Amy Rhodes, who first helped open the orchard in Twin Falls, lost her son William Rhodes on December 1, 2017, while he was in Louisiana.

Rhodes says that this is important for herself and her husband because she doesn’t want her son or any of the fallen to be forgotten.

“It’s tremendous for us, so everyone can help remember because we don’t want him to be forgotten,” she said.

Toyota West Virginia President David Rosier said that this is one of the many things that they have teamed up with the Gold Star Mothers to help honor veterans.

He said that he was honored to have been able to allow them to put the orchard in their park.

“When they approached us with this opportunity to be able to bring an orchard to, we call it our park, and too honor those that have fallen in serving our country it was a great honor and we were super excited to have the opportunity and jumped at the chance when they brought that to us,” Rosier said.

Flags raised during ceremony (Photo: Toyota WV)

After the ceremony, those in attendance were able to grab a dog tag of a service member lost and hang it up on the netting around the apple trees, there were at least over a dozen dog tags places on several nets.

Rhodes says that at every dedication ceremony they have they include the hanging of the dog tags.

“Some of them are by county, the one at Twin Falls we have the trees labeled as counties so some of them you’ll see quite a few on there, and some are like the ones here that you can pick your tree and we come back occasionally to see how they’re doing,” she said.

Rosier said that while they planted apples in memorial for those fallen; he says that it’s goes beyond that especially for the Gold Star Mothers.

“I believe the intent of these are to give the Gold Star Mothers and their families a place to come where they can remember, where they can honor those have served our country and hopefully bring some peace to them as we remember their fallen children,” he said.

He said he hopes that the apples can create the tranquil, peaceful and respectful environment for everyone.

While the park is located next to the Toyota plant, the orchard is located at the intersection of Wrights Lane and Easy Street.

Rosier said they chose this location because of how close it was to the community, so they can come and visit them as well.

Gold Star Mothers bench at the entrance of the Apple Orchard

“We put it at this part of our property so the community can have free access to it and again there’s healing that needs to take place and if we can provide just a little bit of that healing then we’re honored to be able to do that,” he said.

Toyota will be in charge of maintaining and harvesting the apples. The apples will be donated to local schools and senior centers.