Staff Sgt. John Reiners was a Florida Gators fan. If you wanted to find him, you would just have to look for his blue Gators baseball cap.
Reiners was killed Feb. 13 when a roadside bomb was detonated in Afghanistan.
So when Jacque Betz got a call from Reiners’ mother to make a memorial panel for him, she knew it had to be Gators-themed.
Reiners’ panel is one of a few new additions to the 400-plus collection that makes up the Peace Ribbon Project started by Betz.
The Peace Ribbon Project made its first appearance at UF on the Plaza of the Americas on Tuesday with 25 panels, including two for soldiers from Gainesville who died in war.
Each piece of 2-feet-by-3-feet cloth in the ribbon represents soldiers and civilians who have been killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
“Our goal is to keep making panels until all the troops are brought home and the wars are over,” Betz said.
The project is part of CodePink: Women for Peace and has traveled across the United States since it began with 25 pieces in 2005.
Michelle Harris, president and founder of the Campus CodePink for Peace chapter at UF, said she was happy about the interest in the project as students passed by the tent.
A workshop was held in the basement of the Reitz Union, where a panel was made for Reiners in orange and blue fabric with a mini Gators jersey.
Harris said she got involved with CodePink, a women’s anti-war group with the goal of bringing the troops home, because it is very women- and family-orientated. She said war is an issue that directly affects families.
“I’ve always been interested in people’s stories and showing injustices,” Harris said. “I guess unjust wars fall under that, too.”
Betz said the ribbon and the panels serve as a reminder of what war does and who it kills.
