skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The event will feature an exhibit of photographs of the last survivors of the Great War by foundation trustee and noted photographer David DeJonge of Grand Rapids, Mich. DeJonge spent two years traveling around the world finding and photographing the last surviving veterans. The photographs will be on public view at Woodrow Wilson House Nov. 5-12.
Warner said, “As a sailor in the Navy during the last year of World War II, and the son of a World War I veteran, I am delighted to lend my support to the foundation’s work to ensure that an appropriate memorial will soon represent the contributions of all Americans who fought -- with the support of those on the home-front -- during World War I to defend the cause of freedom.”
America’s last surviving World War I veteran, 108-year-old Frank Buckles, was presented with a $1350 check for the World War I Memorial Foundation on Saturday, September 5, 2009, at his farm in Charles Town, West Virginia. Buckles is the honorary chairman of the foundation.
Justin Rojek, head of a Montgomery, Ala., Sons of the American Revolution chapter, traveled to Buckles’s Gap View Farm for the Labor Day weekend event. The chapter raised the funds to support Mr. Buckles’s cause at a Memorial Day service they sponsored.
Buckles visited the D.C. War Memorial in 2008. He called for long-delayed restoration of the memorial, now planned by the National Park Service, and for its re-dedication as a National and District of Columbia World War I Memorial.
Over Memorial Day weekend, ABC World News named Frank Buckles as its "Person of the Week." ABC profiled Mr. Buckles' remarkable life, and cited his call for a national World War I memorial. On CNN, Anderson Cooper's AC360 blog (Read Forgotten vets: ‘Doughboys’ deserve honor too) also discussed the need for a national World War I memorial on the Mall in Washington.
Frank W. Buckles, America's last surviving World War I veteran, will be featured on ABC's evening news program Friday, May 22. Mr. Buckles spoke to ABC about his call for a national World War I memorial on the Mall in Washington DC, adjacent to the national memorials to the other wars of the 20th century.
The Department of the Interior has announced that the National Park Service will spend $7.3 million on restoration of the District of Columbia War Memorial. The funds come from $750 million that was allocated to the nation's parks as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The memorial's restoration is one of 750 park projects around the country that are receiving stimulus funds. One of the two major goals of the World War I Memorial Foundation has thus been accomplished. The Foundation is continuing to lobby for Congressional authorization to re-dedicate the memorial as a "National and District of Columbia War Memorial."
Here are links to the Washington Post's article and Fox 5 coverage of the funding of the memorial's restoration.
Encyclopedia Britannica is helping to spread the mission of supporting the D.C. War Memorial to schools around the country. Britannica's Student News Net, a digital learning website, has highlighted the World War I Memorial as a student learning project. The Student News Net website features articles on the Foundation, its honorary chairman Frank Buckles, and Houston’s Creekwood Middle School’s service learning project that raised $13,553.83 for the memorial. A link to this website is provided on an Encyclopedia Britannica educator page or can be accessed directly at SNN.
On March 6-7, the Foundation hosted a very special event for students from Houston, TX and Washington, DC. Students from Creekwood Middle School outside Houston and from Capital City Public Charter School in Washington independently adopted the DC War Memorial as a cause, and both groups undertook "service-learning" projects to learn about World War I and to raise funds for the memorial. A delegation of three students and about a dozen teachers and parents traveled from Houston to Washington last week, and met the students from Capital City at the Memorial for a "sweep and greet" to call attention to the poor condition of the memorial. Media from WAMU 88.5 (the local NPR station), WTOP 105.3 (local news radio), Fox 5 News, the Associated Press, and the Washington Times attended. The next day, the Creekwood contingent drove to the Charles Town, WV home of our honorary chairman and last surviving American veteran of World War I, Frank Buckles, to present him with a check for $13,500.
Here is the news report on Channel 5
The National Park Service has issued a "preliminary preferred alternative plan" for improvements to the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington. This planning document, which will still go through public review and comment as well as an environmental impact study, outlines the Park Service's plans for near- and long-term development of the Mall. The plan, which will likely be finalized in late 2009, includes as one of its elements the rehabilitation of the DC War Memorial.
See the NPS preliminary plan.
Frank W. Buckles, of Charles Town, West Virginia, turned 108 on February 1. Mr. Buckles is the honorary chairman of the World War I Memorial Foundation, and the last surviving American veteran of the Great War. As the years went on, Mr. Buckles said, "I realized I'd be one of the last, but I never thought I'd be the last." He added, "Of course, if it has to be somebody, it might as well be me." Mr. Buckles was honored at the White House and the Pentagon last year, and has been advocating for the re-dedication of the District of Columbia War Memorial as a national World War I memorial.
Creekwood Middle School in Houston, Texas, and Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) will host Foundation president David DeJonge and his exhibit of photographs of the world's last survivors of World War I on February 9, 2009. The school has taken on support for the restoration and preservation of the District of Columbia War Memorial as this year's service learning project. The event marks the beginning of a national tour of David DeJonge's photographs. The students will engage in cross-curricular studies of World War I and will sell World War I donor tags to raise money and awareness concerning preservation of the World War I monument. See the following link for more information:
Creekwood Middle School's 2009 Service Learning Project on the World War One Memorial Exhibit
