Peoria Veterans Day 5K Home

• • • Race Updates • • •

• The start times have been updated as follows:
7:30 AM   Peoria Veterans Day 5K Run
7:31 AM   Non-competitive Family Fitness Walk

• Course Maps have been updated. HERE


Race Description

The Peoria Veterans Day 5K Run takes place at the Rio Vista Community Center in Peoria on Saturday morning, November 13, 2010. This is the 3rd running of this annual 5K running race & non-competitive family fitness walk. The race was created to encourage citizens to participate in a celebration of our country's freedom by honoring all veterans, living and deceased, who have served our country.

Veterans Day History

Veterans Day is an annual American holiday honoring military veterans and is usually observed on November 11.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 12, 1919. The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies.

An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday; "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

In 1953, an Emporia, Kansas shoe store owner named Al King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I. King had been actively involved with the American War Dads during World War II.

He began a campaign to turn Armistice Day into "All" Veterans Day. The Emporia Chamber of Commerce took up the cause after determining that 90% of Emporia merchants as well as the Board of Education supported closing their doors on November 11, 1953, to honor veterans. With the help of then U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, also from Emporia, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress.

President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954.

Congress amended this act on November 8, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with Veterans, and it has been known as Veterans Day since.

Although originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in 1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. In 1978 it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11.
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