Press Releases

18th Anniversary Events Highlighted

PRESS ADVISORY

REMEMBRANCE CEREMONY – Friday, April 19

The 18th Anniversary Remembrance Ceremony will begin at 8:55am on Friday, April 19th, at the First United Methodist Church located at NW 5th & Robinson. Congressman James Lankford and Governor Mary Fallin are scheduled to join this year’s ceremony. Memorial Foundation Chairman Gary Pierson will emcee the event.

Similar to previous years, 168 seconds of silence will be observed at 9:02am, reflecting the moment the nation was changed forever. The ceremony will start with a bagpipe procession of the ceremony participants, led by the Oklahoma Scottish Pipes and Drums.

Campbell Walker Fields, an 11 year old-student at Classen School for Advanced Studies, will sing “The Star Spangled Banner”, and George Skramstad, Worship Minister and violinist with Crossings Church, will play “The Lord’s Prayer” before the reading of the 168 names.

The Ceremony is expected to last about an hour, and the Field of Empty Chairs will be open to the media following the ceremony as families, survivors and friends place items on the chairs.

A limited number of seedlings from the Survivor Tree will be available. Each year, the Memorial Facilities & Construction staff picks up Survivor Tree seeds for the Sunshine Nursery in Clinton, OK, who grows the seedlings for the Memorial Foundation. Mark Bays, with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry, is the Survivor Tree consultant and has been nurturing this remarkable tree now for 18 years.

Media Information
All media except pool cameras will be located on the left side of the church. A mult-box feed will be provided. All media need to be in place by 8:30am in the reserved media area. Media credentials will be passed out that morning. Media live truck parking only will be along the parking lane of NW 5th just off Robinson. Please park additional news vehicles in the various lots surrounding the Memorial or at the metered parking spaces.

Pool Camera Information
KWTV will provide the podium pool TV camera shot. Contact KWTV’s Greg Ward at 405.623.0339 or Greg.ward@News9.net for more information or to get a feed from this camera shot. Associated Press will provide the still pool camera shots. Please contact Sue Ogrocki at sogrocki@ap.org for more information. All other reporters and cameras will be under the Survivor Tree.

WiFi will be provided by Cox Communications. There is access on Robinson, and throughout the site. No password is required. Connect to the Cox Hot Spot network, and click Connect Me on the splash page it brings up. The First United Methodist Church is allowing the media to use their wifi - the password is churchfirst! All lower case with the exclamation point. Again, the wifi is for media use only.

The GSA Plaza is currently under construction and is closed to all media this year.

COX COMMUNITY DAY – Friday, April 19th

Cox Communications will again sponsor free admission to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum for all visitors on Friday, April 19th. The Museum will open at 10 a.m., following the Remembrance Ceremony and will remain open until 5:00 p.m. Cox Community Day aims to ensure all are able to learn the lessons of the Oklahoma City bombing, and we encourage all to join us during this Day of Remembrance.

MEMORIAL KIDS MARATHON POSTER CONTEST – Friday, April 19

The winner of our first Memorial Kids Marathon Poster Contest will be revealed at the winning student’s 4th grade class Friday, April 19 at 1:00pm. Children were invited to create a poster detailing the inspiration behind the “Run to Remember”.

MEMORIAL MOTORCYCLE RUN – Saturday, April 20

BENEFITS THE OKC NATIONAL MEMORIAL & MUSEUM
The 6th Annual Memorial Motorcycle Run takes place on Saturday, April 20th. The Memorial Motorcycle Run is for Oklahomans who wish to support the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum by doing what they love: riding their bikes under beautiful Oklahoma skies. A special wreath laying on the Field of Empty Chairs will be held about noon.

The run begins at Papa’s Leather, located at 6623 NW 23 and ends at Margarita Island, located at 8139 NW 10th St. in Oklahoma City. The first bike out leaves at noon, and the last bike is in at 6pm. Registration begins at 11am, at $20 for a single rider and $30 for double riders. If you have any questions about the ride, contact Stacey Weddington at sw@oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org.

ART2REMEMBER – Thursday April 26 through May 31

Featuring the artwork of Desmond Mason and Shelly Lewis Stanfield. The artwork will be on display in the Museum’s Center for Education and Outreach. Proceeds from the sale of the art will be donated to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.

13TH ANNUAL OKLAHOMA CITY MEMORIAL MARATHON – Sunday, April 28th

About 25,000 people are expected for the 13th Annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, the Run to Remember. Runners from at least 47 states, five foreign countries and three Canadian provinces will participate. The Marathon begins at 6:30am followed by the Kids Marathon at 8:15 on Sunday, April 28th.

There is still time to register for the Marathon at OKCMarathon.com. The Memorial Marathon requires a lot of community support, so if you are interested in volunteering contact Mollie Bennett, Marathon Coordinator at mb@oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org

Special guests and participants can be made available for media interviews or live shots before and during the race. For credentials, go to OKCMarathon.com and click Media.

Social Media Campaign
Teach our younger generation by Tweeting about the event. Please help us by promoting the following hashtag #R2R @OKCMarathon. Consider a live Twitter feed during your coverage. Also encourage viewers/readers/listeners to submit comments on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Flickr.

REFLECTIONS OF HOPE AWARD CEREMONY – Monday, May 13th

Malala and Ziauddin Yousafzai are the recipients of the 2013 Reflections of Hope Award. Ziauddin Yousafzai is a renowned education and sociopolitical leader. Seventeen years ago, he founded – and still directs – the Khushal Public School in Pakistan, an all-girls institution created to foster a new generation of female leadership. His daughter, Malala, a fifteen year old activist, was shot by the Taliban in an assassination attempt to silence her strong voice for women to become educated.

The luncheon will be held at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Sam Noble Special Event Center. Tickets are available at ReflectionsofHopeAward.org

The Reflections of Hope Award, established in 2005, is made possible through the generous support of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. Some of the previous recipients have been Father Alex Reid, President William J. Clinton and President George W. Bush and family.

MEDIA CONTACT

MaryAnn Eckstein
mae@oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org
405.235.3313 or 405.888.6908

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