The Illinois State Athletics Department launched the Redbird Remembrance website Thursday morning.
The Redbird Remembrance website honors the seven men who lost their lives in the April 7, 2015, plane crash outside of Bloomington-Normal. The Redbird Remembrance website is a secondary site on GoRedbirds.com, that can be located through the ‘About’ tab or by visiting Remembrance.GoRedbirds.com.
The Redbird Remembrance website is another way for family, friends and community members to remember seven friends taken too soon.
“The Redbird Remembrance page on our website is an important piece in our efforts to memorialize the seven men lost in the tragic accident that occurred on April 7, 2015,” Director of Athletics Larry Lyons said. “The Redbird Remembrance page is a comprehensive compilation of media accounts, videos, family pictures and condolences, as well as information on the memorial built on campus. It not only provides a permanent record of the accident, but also documents campus, community and individual responses. Each family has been so gracious to share family pictures to give a very personal and human side to each individual story. Our intent is to continually update the website as tributes, pictures and responses come forward.”
The website consists of seven sections, beginning with the home page which incorporates speeches and statements from University President Dr. Larry Dietz and Lyons from the days following the crash. After the homepage, guests of the website will navigate to ‘The Seven’ section, which is laid out with photos of each individual. Once a photo is selected, a bio page with a family photo and link to a news article will appear. The third section is dedicated to the campus memorial, the seven patch and replica Battle Bird.
From there, the fourth section page will be a condolence page from individuals around the community, state and country. In the fifth section, videos will be available for viewing, while the sixth section consists of family photo galleries. The final section is called ‘Links & Articles’, which incorporates print and video news stories from that tragic day and the days after.
The Redbird Remembrance website is the fourth addition to the entire Redbird Remembrance campaign. In September, the Redbird Remembrance memorial located near the north entrance of Redbird Arena was unveiled. In addition to the memorial, Redbird student-athletes and coaches are wearing a patch on game days during the 2015-16 season in memory of the seven men, while a replica of the Battle Bird will also be placed at the entrance in the Hancock Stadium Club and Legends Room in Redbird Arena on home football and men’s basketball game days. At the base of the Battle Bird is a plaque with the seven names, as another way to memorialize the friends and community members we lost that day.
