Tuesday, April 22, 1997
Bricks on sale to pave surface of memorial
park near Dyess
By JERRY DANIEL REED
Senior Staff Writer
Your good intentions can help pave a memorial park honoring
those who died in the service of their country while assigned
to Dyess Air Force Base.
You'll need to back up your benevolent thoughts with cash,
of course. For $40, you can buy a brick engraved with your name,
or someone you want remembered. Your brick, and hundreds of others,
will pave the surface of a memorial park north of the Dyess main
gate.
The paver campaign kicked off Saturday at the "World's
Largest Barbecue" for Dyess personnel and their family members.
Members of the Military Affairs Committee of the Abilene Chamber
of Commerce passed out hundreds of brochures, which explain the
memorial project and include order forms for the bricks.
"The main purpose is to include as many people in Abilene
and the Texas Midwest as we can," explained Lynda Calcote,
the MAC member who leads the paver campaign. "We think these
would be wonderful gifts: for graduates, for weddings - June is
coming up - for birthdays, to honor someone's anniversary."
The 4-by-8-inch bricks are the color of Texas granite, Calcote
said. Three lines of up to 14 characters each will identify the
donor or the individual he wants memorialized.
Revenue from the sale of the bricks will help build the park
and an adjacent visitors center. Major corporate and individual
gifts raised to date top $350,000. These include a $125,000 anonymous
gift, seven $25,000 contributions, and more than $50,000 in amounts
of $1,000 and up.
Bids on the project were opened last week, but the contract
has not yet been awarded, said Jesse Fletcher, vice chairman of
the Military Affairs Committee.
The park and a visitor's center are planned for dedication
in September, sometime around the 50th anniversary of the U.S.
Air Force as a separate branch of the country's armed services
on Sept. 18. The precise dedication date has yet to be chosen,
Fletcher said.
Architect Jimmy Tittle said the project will consist of a visitors'
center, measuring 30 by 80 feet, plus a memorial of like size.
The memorial will include a tree and planter at one end and a
fountain at the other, plus walls bearing the name of Dyess airmen
who died while stationed here, and a 15-by-30-foot open-sided
shelter.
The visitors' center will include a large display area, bathrooms,
and an office. It will be constructed of native stone, similar
in style to the nearby main gate.
Location will be the northeast corner of the base, near the
former site of the main gate, at Arnold Boulevard and Military
Drive.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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