Tied to the laces of the boots is a laminated card identifying Spc. Walter B. Howard II as their owner. Howard is one of more than 140 Michigan soldiers who have died during the Iraq war and is remembered through Eyes Wide Open: An exhibition on the human cost of the Iraq war.

The exhibit, which displays combat boots tagged with the name, rank and age of every Michigan soldier killed during the Iraq war, was developed by the American Friends Service Committee in 2004.

“The American Friends Service Committee is a service organization that was started by Quakers,” said Margaret Nielsen, a volunteer during Monday’s event and member of local Quaker organization Red Cedar Friends Meeting.

“People at the Chicago office began wondering what they could do to have people remember the human cost of war soon after the Iraq war began,” Nielsen said.

In the spring of 2004, about 500 combat boots were displayed in Chicago, said Ann Francis, one of the coordinators for the Michigan Eyes Wide Open memorial exhibit.

“When I first heard about it, I thought ‘How would they be able to do this in a way that everyone would feel welcome?’” Francis said. “The American Friends Service Committee found a way to honor (those who have died) no matter what people believe about the war.”

The first Eyes Wide Open exhibit, held in Michigan in 2004 on the lawn of the Capitol, included about 1,000 pairs of boots for every soldier in the United States who had died in the war up to that point, Nielsen said.

With more than 3,000 soldiers who have been killed since the beginning of the war, the exhibit split into individual state exhibits in May 2007, said Francis.

For Anita Smith Buckwalter, pastor of the First Church of the Brethren, the boots serve as a reminder of the many people who have lost their lives.

“It’s sad (to) walk through these boots and see the ages,” Smith Buckwalter said.

“You think there has to be another way to settle conflicts.”