Parade – October 24, 2013 – by Sarah Smiley
Each month, Sarah and Dustin Smiley invite a new guest to have dinner with them and their three sons. You can read more about the project here.
David Cote has been described by some who know him as “the state of Maine’s greatest export.” A go-getter since he started his own paper route at the age of eight (“That’s younger than me,” my middle son, Owen, 10, said) and became an Eagle Scout in high school, David, a Major in the Marine Corps, is now embarking on his biggest and most important feat: The Summit Project.
The Summit Project is a living memorial to honor every service member from Maine who has died since 9/11. The families of these service members select a rock from a special location, and David has it engraved with the service member’s initials and birth- and death- years. On Memorial Day 2014, he and a team of hikers will carry the rocks up Mt. Katahdin, Maine’s tallest mountain and the end of the Appalachian Trail. Then they will carry the rocks back down so that more hikers can do the same for years to come. According to David, “We will honor the fallen by challenging the living.” (Some of the rocks are close to 20 pounds.) MORE….