About Us
The National Virtual Memorial is a joint project of the Gold Star Family Foundation and Charity Road Shows; it is completely free of advertising, and carries no charges for access.
Before we launched the site, we spent more than six months experimenting with different web tools to try and find the right combination so that it would be both easy to use, and flexible enough to offer the kind of customization that families want.
Why did we build it? Because of people like Melissa Sewell. Melissa, in her own words, went from planning a wedding to planning a funeral when her fiance, Sgt. James J. Holtom, was killed by an IED last February. Melissa is a great blogger. Not everyone is. And while Melissa uses her blog as a personal diary, other would like a place where they can simply put photos, and stories, and have other people help them collect remembrances.
Recently we were rather surprised to find that the majority of websites devoted to similar interests charge the bereaved families, as if it were some sort of privilege for them to remember their dead. We believe it is a privilege for us to be able to provide a place for those memorials to take place for free.
We are by no means finished this project; features are being considered, tweaked and measured all the time. We invite you to get in touch with us if you have an idea or a suggestion that would make the site better.
