By Sarah Stultz, staff writer

Celebrating the spirit of peacemaking and calling an end to the war in Iraq, several dozen people of all ages gathered at the Edgewater Park Bandshell Saturday afternoon during the first ever Paths to Peacestock event.

Though the weather was a little colder than initially planned for, that didn&8217;t keep people from enjoying the entertainment and taking part in the celebration.

Sponsored by Paths to Peace in Freeborn County, the event featured several musical performances and a special exhibition that featured a pair of boots honoring every military service member from Minnesota who has died since the United States went to war in Iraq on March 19, 2003.

Jeremy Corey-Gruenes, who helped organize the event, said Paths to Peace tries to do one big event every year &8212; usually an academic forum &8212; but this year they thought they&8217;d try something new to attract a different audience.

Organizers also wanted to do something that would allow as many people as possible to view the American Friends Service Committee traveling exhibition &8220;Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War,&8221; Corey-Gruenes said. The exhibition was created to illustrate the lives lost in the war in Iraq. It first opened in Chicago&8217;s Federal Plaza with more than 500 pairs of boots in January of 2004.

The national exhibit was last displayed on Memorial Day weekend 2007 with over 3,400 pairs of boots. This was the last time that the entire death toll was represented in one location.

Since then, the exhibition has been divided into state displays and traveled throughout the nation to smaller cities and towns.

All the state exhibits combined now include more than 4,000 pairs of combat boots representing U.S. military casualties, along with a memorial to the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have been killed in the conflict.

A sign in the exhibit stated that for each soldier that is killed from the Iraq War there is an estimated 7 additional U.S. soldiers who are wounded &8212; many of who have lost limbs or suffered life-threatening injuries.

Corey-Gruenes said there were 61 boots on display at the event.

&8220;I just think it&8217;s really important to think about the human cost of the war,&8221; said Jennifer Vogt-Erickson, whose husband, Jeshua Erickson was one of the musicians who played at the event.

She said she came out to Paths to Peacestock to honor the soldiers who have laid down their lives.

The event featured folk singer Larry Long, who has made his life&8217;s work through the celebration of American stories and heroes, along with Erickson, Adam Hammer, Choreographed for Perfection, Geneva Witnesses and Northern Lights.

Halfway through the event, there was a reading of the state&8217;s fallen soldiers from the Iraq War.