Posted on 06/30/2004 6:39:47 PM PDT by The Mayor
Memorial replica comes to Kenmore By EMMA D. SAPONG News Northtowns Reporter 6/28/2004
For four days next month, Western New Yorkers could experience a gamut of emotions - from sadness to pride - with visits to the replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Kenmore. The Vietnam Wall Experience, a three-quarter-scale traveling copy of the memorial in Washington, D.C., will welcome visitors at 8 p.m. July 8 in Mang Park after an opening ceremony. The exhibit is 8 feet high and 240 feet long and has the names of 58,175 Americans who died during the Vietnam War or are missing in Vietnam inscribed on its faux granite surface. It will be open 24 hours to allow visitors to touch and experience the wall until the closing ceremony at 2 p.m. July 11.
The four days will include ceremonies, speakers - including decorated veterans, a white dove release, 21-gun salute, fly-overs and live music.
The exhibit will be making its Western New York debut. Kenmore is one of 19 municipalities in the country and the only one in New York State hosting the exhibit this touring season.
"We are honored to be the host municipality," said Kathleen Johnson, the village's clerk/treasurer. "It's been a community effort, and hopefully, this event will touch everybody in some way."
The exhibit will arrive on July 6 aboard a tractor-trailer. It will be escorted into Kenmore by police and 300 to 500 motorcyclists. The exhibit takes at least eight hours to assemble.
It was created by Dignity Memorial, a national network of funeral, cremation and cemetery providers. Dignity Memorial's local funeral home, Dengler & Roberts Funeral Home on Delaware Avenue in Kenmore, is the lead sponsor of the exhibit.
"It's a great way to educate the children who know very little about the Vietnam War," said Beth Gerrish, after-care coordinator for the funeral home. Other sponsors include Erie County, the Rotary Club of Kenmore, WIVB-TV, the Town of Tonawanda, local businesses and individual donors. The Vietnam Wall Experience Committee was established last December to organize the four days of events. e-mail: esapong@buffnews.com
Buffalo Chapter Ping!!
We should all make it to this.
I haven't seen the Wall in D.C.
I have been eagerly awaiting seeing this Replica.
Can any of you make it?
Can you ping some freepers that may live close enough to come ?
What happened to the NY members page?
Ping!
BTTT
Very emotional, I can still sense the grief....
That's hours away from me :(
where are you located ?
Freepmail me if you want.
Hi Mayor, I have been to the D.C. memorial and it's awesome. I will be going there again this friday as myself and some friends are traveling to the D.C. area for the Jimmy Buffett concert at the Nisson Pavilion this Sat. We are a bunch of Parrot Heads. I am also looking foward to seeing the new WWII memorial. My dad was involved in that one and made it home safely thanks to Little Boy. I will try to make it to Kenmore to see the traveling exhibit.
She's in NYC.
Any chance we make this a gathering of FReepers on an evening to visit the event?
You and me, brother. That's why I put it on my home page.
They gave us their best, we owe them the same.
I want so bad to see the WWII Memorial. Do you have a digital camera?
Good for me, I only live across the bridge.
July 8 thru the 11th.
where is that? NYC? I'm upstate...Syracuse.
just outside Buffalo..
Did you see this?
The Traveling Vietnam Wall just left Grants Pass, oregon.
I've got a bunch of pictures to post in the next day or so...
It was very moving.
Ed
do you want to post some here ?
I don't think so.
I think I'll start another thread.
Thanks anyway!
See ya',
Ed
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