Chattanooga Unite Brings Thousands together to celebrate

Chattanooga, TN (WDEF) –  You have to wonder what the Blue Angels saw as the flew over the Wednesday gathering by the Tennessee River… as Chattanooga came together to celebrate the lives of five fallen servicemen.

People are ready to show just how united they are.

"That’s exactly right. We wanted it to be a Chattanooga Unite, a celebration of life.  We wanted it to be a healing type event when you go through the grieving process and then you move into the celebration of life," said Mickey McCamish from Friends of the Festival.

Donation numbers are coming in with more than $280,000 raised for the families of those five servicemen.

McCamish said, "It helped them. They have been through a lot just in terms of the different types of events.  There have been two, most memorializing. Now, they were glad to go through the celebration phase."

Chattanooga Unite may also leave a lasting reminder on the waterfront, as well.

McCamish said, "I talked to the city this morning and recommended… we had 5 flag polls at the end of the pier one for each of the servicemen and recommended that we keep those flag poles in place."
 

The proposal is already gaining official support.

City Councilman Ken Smith said, "When we were down at the festival last night, we were sitting at the table right by the poles, and I heard a comment from one of the people in our party asking if they were permanent… they were temporarily set up and you could see they weren’t permanent and the comment was I hope they leave them, and throughout the night probably a dozen or more people walked by saying I hope they leave them."

There’s already discussion about making Chattanooga Unite a yearly celebration and tribute.