Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall will be in Aurora from Thursday to Sunday
The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall will visit Aurora this week.
Where will the wall be set up?
The wall will be at Hartman Park, 305 Townline Road, Aurora, for 75 continuous hours starting at noon Thursday until 3 p.m. Sunday.
The traveling wall is a three-fifths scale of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.; it stands 6 feet tall at the center and covers almost 300 feet from end to end. It contains all the names that are on the memorial in the nation's capital.
Ceremony in Aurora: The Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall ceremony
The wall last visited Aurora 23 years ago, said Tony Dockus, a Vietnam veteran and member of the Aurora Veterans of Foreign Wars.
It comes to Aurora from a stop in Roscoe, Pennsylvania, and will travel to McHenry, Illinois, when the display in Aurora ends.
Daily ceremonies
The memorial will arrive with a motorcycle escort from the South East Harley-Davidson dealership in Bedford Heights. Vietnam veterans riding motorcycles will accompany it on its procession to Hartman Park for a ribbon-cutting at noon.
After the ribbon-cutting, a military honors ceremony will feature a wreath presentation by the mayors of Aurora, Streetsboro, Hudson, Mantua, Reminderville, Hudson, Solon and Twinsburg, plus Portage County commissioners and veterans.
The memorial will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and volunteers will help people find their loved ones on the wall and do a "rubbing" of their names. However, the wall will be lit and guarded around the clock, so veterans who prefer to avoid crowds can pay their respects during off-hours, Dockus said.
Military honors also will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Aurora Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin will give a brief speech.
Also on Saturday, a Veterans Information Fair will take place inside a tent at the park. Volunteers will provide information on the PACT Act, a new law that expands care for veterans exposed to toxic substances; on medical and mental health benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs; and on services provided by the Portage County Veterans Service Center, a Mobile Veterans Service Center, Project Healing Waters and others.
Community effort
Dockus said the VFW, which also hosted the wall in 2000 at Sunny Lake Park, wanted to do something "big" this year and decided to bring the wall back to the community. Hartman Park was selected because it's a newer park that has room for the display.
The VFW set out to raise $35,000 and exceeded that. In addition to the $10,000 rental fee to bring the wall to the city, donations paid for a program, large tent and plywood sidewalk to help those in wheelchairs access the memorial.
"People were very generous," he said.
Why is the wall coming to Aurora?
Dockus said the VFW wanted to honor the sacrifices of Vietnam veterans, honor those who are missing, and give local families a chance to honor their sacrifice.
"A lot of people can't afford to go to Washington to see the real wall,' he said.
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall coming to Aurora on Thursday
