A mom comes up with a tribute to Minnesota's fallen and a benefit for their returning comrades

The calendar page for Sgt. Nicholas Turcotte, Brooklyn Park, MN. ((Courtesy to Pioneer Press: Minnesota Fallen Heroes Remembered, 2010))

Veterans Day honors America's military members one day each year, but a soon-to-released calendar will recognize 13 fallen Minnesota servicemen year-round.

A Minnesota mom came up with the idea.

"I spent a lot of time out at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, visiting the graves of fallen Soldiers," said Patricia Boyd, 62, a St. Paul woman with a daughter and son-in-law in the Minnesota Army National Guard. "I started meeting the moms. ... One major concern they all share is that they don't want anyone to forget their son or daughter.

"I was trying to think of something we could do to keep their memory alive, and for some reason I thought of a calendar. For a whole month, every month, a fallen Soldier could be honored."

Boyd and her friend, Richard Geis, have spent the past two years working on the Minnesota Fallen Heroes Remembered project, along with Jennifer Turcotte, of Maple Grove, a graphic designer and widow of a Soldier.

The 2010 calendar, priced at $10, will be available this month and includes a message from Gov. Tim Pawlenty. However, it will take more than one 13-month calendar to honor all of Minnesota's recent fallen.
"It's an ongoing project, until all the Soldiers from the war on terror are honored," Boyd said.

That list contains more than 100 Minnesotans who have died serving their country, she said, and the tributes won't be limited to those who were killed in combat.

"But we won't put anyone in the calendar unless we have the permission of their family," Boyd said. "Their families are the ones who send us all their information and photos."

"This is a way for the community to remember these kids, a whole generation that has stepped up to the plate since we were hit on Sept. 11, 2001," Geis said.

Bryan McDonough is featured in July, his birthday month. The 22-year-old died Dec. 2, 2006, when the Humvee he was driving struck a roadside bomb near Camp Fallujah.

The calendar tells how McDonough was so much more than the day of his death: He was one of four children, all born within five years; he loved hockey and lacrosse; he believed war should be fought by people like him, young and single.

"We want people to know who he was when he was alive," said Tom McDonough, of Hugo, Bryan's father, who is funding production of the calendar through the Bryan McDonough Military Heroes Foundation.
Proceeds from the sale of this and future calendars will benefit families of fallen Soldiers.

The calendar also is a way to learn: The monthly tributes include biographies as well as photo collages of the Soldiers with their families, at graduations, weddings — even as babies.

Turcotte, 26, the widow of Sgt. Nicholas Turcotte — honored on February's pages — met Boyd and Geis during a wreath ceremony at Fort Snelling.

"It was still within a year of my husband's dying, so it was a raw time, but I could tell they were open and warm people who just wanted to do something to help these families," said Turcotte, a designer and photographer. "I told them I was a graphic designer and to let me know how I could help."

Through the calendar, the public can learn that Nicholas Turcotte played the trombone, married his high-school sweetheart and dreamed of a career in law enforcement.

"It's been an amazing and uplifting experience, and also very healing, because this calendar is not really about the Soldiers' deaths. It's more about their lives," Turcotte said. "There is more to them than just their death on the news. Although they died tragically, I think this is a way to show how they lived all their other days."

By Molly Guthrey Millett
mollymillett@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 11/10/2009 10:45:14 PM CST
Molly Guthrey Millett can be reached at 651-228-5505.
Find more information about how to buy a calendar later this month at militaryheroesfoundation.org.