By Jesse Wood
The High Country Chapter of Military Officers Association of America (HCCMOAA) set up a booth at the Jones House on Fourth of July to allow the public to view the three finalists in the design contest for the future Watauga County Veterans Memorial.
LtCol George Brudzinski (Ret.), also a member of the HCCMOAA, said the maquettes, small models of the finalists in the memorial design competition, were well received by the public, which had the opportunity to donate $2 and pick their favorite design.
“We had a lot of people interested and a lot of people asked questions. All three mockups were liked,” Brudzinski said.
Brudzinski noted that if members of the public weren’t able to attend the Fourth of July festivities in downtown Boone yesterday, the three models will be on display at Boone Town Hall beginning on Thursday.
The models will be on display in town hall until the finalist is selected in about a month.
The finalists are Suzie Hallier’s (shown here): “Time and Honor;” Clint Button’s: “Boone Veterans Memorial Courtyard;” and Wesley Wofford’s: “Marching Out of History to Forge the Future.”
The project is a collaboration between the Town of Boone, Watauga County and the High Country Chapter of Military Officers Association of America. The memorial will be installed in the summer of 2018. It will be located beside town hall.
Organizers received 19 sculpture proposals. The design contest committee narrowed those down to three, and after the public weighs in on the finalists during Independence Day, the committee will then commission one of the proposals.
The finalists were chosen based on particular criteria listed in the prospectus for the design competition, such as the inclusion of land, sea and air operations; past, present and future conflicts; and male and female soldiers of all ethnicities. The sculptures must reflect the culture of and fit within the landscape of the High Country. A safety element is also considered because it will have a mobile audience in downtown Boone.
The project has a $250,000 fundraising goal. The HCCMOAA started things off with $10,000. Watauga County donated $25,000, and the Town of Boone donated the downtown site and will provide preliminary site preparation and future maintenance and insurance.
Donations are still needed and can be made online at www.hccmoaa.org, http://www.facebook.com/HCCMOAA/ or mailed to:
Watauga County Veterans Memorial Fund
c/o High Country MOAA
P.O. Box 3312
Boone, NC 28607
“Since we are now down to 3 finalist we are entering a critical stage of fundraising and the financial support of the community is important to make this project a reality,” Brudzinski said.
For more information, click to www.hccmoaa.org, www.facebook.com/HCCMOAA/ or read about the feature in the April/May 2017 issue of High Country Magazine.
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