Photos by STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Scott Hopkins, 46, of Blackstone is a pastor at Crenshaw United Methodist Church. "I'm in avid opposition to this war," he said Monday outside the Roanoke Civic Center, where the "Eyes Wide Open" exhibit was on display.

2nd Lt. Jeffrey Joseph Kaylor

24 years old, from Clifton

Tamara Mahdi Alankome

1 year old

Noor Mahmood Ali Hmade

11 years old

Kareema Shalal Hamad

47 years old

STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Peggy Hopewell, 76, of Suffolk pauses to look at shoes and boots representing U.S. and Iraqi deaths.

Moustafa Ala'a Gasem Algmale. Maj William Randolph Watkins.

Leslie D. Jackson.

These names, written on note cards attached to boots and shoes, represent lives lost in the war in Iraq.

Moustafa was an Iraqi infant. Watkins lived in Danville and had two young children. Jackson, 18, hailed from Richmond.

All of them seemed to have long lives ahead of them, yet each of those lives was cut short. They were among 4,000-some U.S. military and 80,000 documented Iraqi civilian deaths since the war started in 2003.

With 125 pairs of worn and unworn black boots placed neatly in rows, the Roanoke Civic Center on Monday was turned into a solemn one-day memorial for Virginians who have died in Iraq and the Iraqi people. Iraqi deaths were marked by casual shoes.

Hundreds of Virginians witnessed the display, called "Eyes Wide Open."

The one-day exhibit was brought to Roanoke by the Virginia United Methodist Church and the American Friends Service Committee to illustrate the human cost of the Iraq war. The church's annual convention is at the civic center this year; it ends Wednesday.

"This exhibit just shows that life is very, very precious, whether it's our own or the people of Iraq," said the Rev. Randy Harlow of Roseland.

The American Friends Service Committee began the national project four years ago. At its 2004 unveiling in Chicago there were 504 pairs of boots. Each week, more are added to represent the rising death toll.

At each stop, visitors to the exhibit leave notes, photographs of lost soldiers, identification tags, flowers and American flags to accompany the boots on their journey.

At the exhibit's debut in Blacksburg on the Virginia Tech campus in 2005, 52 pairs represented U.S. soldiers from Virginia. Ten of them represented the footwear of five Virginia Tech students or graduates who have died in Iraq.

The United Methodist Church as a whole has protested the war in Iraq. Harlow said he participated in a protest in Washington when the war began in 2003. President Bush, who is a member of the United Methodist Church, declined to meet with several of the bishops in the church, Harlow added.

The Rev. Patricia Shipley of Centenary United Methodist Church in Richmond said she first saw the exhibit at Virginia Commonwealth University about a year ago and wanted to become involved. Many of the exhibit's visitors were members of the Methodist convention; however other Roanoke residents also stopped by to pay respect.

One of them was Martha Hagood. She said she thought the exhibit was very appropriate.

"It's just a very peaceful way of remembering those who have died in our name," she said.

Hagood said she appreciated the intimacy the exhibit brought to Roanoke.

"Since I'm a Virginian it brings it home to me," she said. "As Southerners we tend to strike up a kinship with other Southerners ... just walking through and seeing some of the names and hometowns I wondered if I might have known their mother or family."