Frank Buckles presented with check for World War I Memorial Foundation

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.

World War I Memorial to be featured on Fox News this weekend

The Fox News national TV network ran a report over the Fourth of July weekend on the need for a national World War I Memorial. The report featured interviews with Frank Buckles and with Edwin Fountain, one of the directors of the Foundation.

As a reminder, we have begun an on-line petition asking Congress to re-dedicate the District of Columbia War Memorial as a national memorial. If you haven't done so, please sign and ask your family and friends to do the same.

Thanks again for your support.

Frank Buckles, DC War Memorial featured on ABC World News Tonight, CNN

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.

Watch the ABC World News segment.

Frank Buckles To Appear on ABC World News with Charles Gibson

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.

National Park Service allocates $7.3 million of stimulus funds for restoration of the DC War Memorial

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 features WWI Service Learning Project in support of the D.C. War Memorial renovation

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.

Texas, Washington DC students show their support for a national World War I Memorial

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