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Thirty years ago today the music stopped when the skywalks in the elegant Hyatt Regency hotel lobby suddenly crashed down on a crowd of people enjoying big-band tunes and a night out.

The 114 people killed in the disaster will never age. The injured, the victims’ loved ones and the rescuers, however, are three decades older.

Over that long a span, anger and grief can recede, but they can also harden into a resolve to make sure that the calamity is never forgotten.

A small group has been making real progress toward creating a permanent memorial to the dead, the injured and the rescue workers. Today, on the 30th anniversary, they will reveal a sculpture design for a Skywalk Memorial and announce they are closer than ever to making it a reality.

“I become frustrated because I feel this has gone on way too long,” said Frank Freeman, who five years ago picketed in the broiling sun outside the Hyatt hotel for a memorial. Today he is less outwardly angry, more confident of success.

“Everything happens for a purpose,” said Freeman, who lost his partner at the Hyatt and was himself injured. “Now (I see) these past five years everything happened at the right time and we got the right people involved.”

The group has:

•Established a nonprofit Skywalk Memorial Foundation that has raised about $350,000 of the $800,000 it needs for a memorial and an endowment. The fund is managed by the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.

•Obtained the blessings of both the Hyatt and the property owner, Hallmark Cards Inc.

•Secured a choice spot just across the street — and visible from — the Hyatt in Hospital Hill Park, 22nd Street and Gillham Road.

Memorial proponents will mark that progress and break ground in a “Celebration of Life and Spirit” at 12:30 p.m. today at the park. They are optimistic that by the 31st anniversary they will be able to gather at the completed memorial.

Foundation board member Brent Wright, who lost his mother and stepfather at the Hyatt, said the disaster was a historic event for Kansas City and had a ripple effect beyond the community. A memorial is important, he said, because it would be the first collective, public recognition of what happened.

He acknowledges it has been a long road.

“I don’t know that any of us knew exactly what to expect when we embarked on this project,” Wright said. “For better or for worse, this is a marathon, not a sprint. We need to get across the finish line.”