Thanks to the incredibly big heart of this community and so many neighboring communities, we are well on our way to being able to fully fund the construction of the first phase of the Maple Valley Veterans Memorial. This first phase will consist of landscaping, access improvements, some paving, the layout and building of the walk-way and the construction of the Memorial itself. It’s been a long time coming and we are almost there. We still need your help in raising another $50,000.00 or so to be certain that once we start, we will be able to finish! Our donations, grants and in-kind contributions so far have raised in the neighborhood of $385,000.00. Here’s a very informal breakdown of some milestones we have achieved and some noteworthy events.
- One of Storms final acts was the approval of a State of Washington Grant in the amount of $235,000.00. This grant will be converted and a check will be written to the foundation when we can prove to the state that we have enough cash and resources to finish the project.
- We are fully permitted and have even started some preliminary clearing/grading of the site.
- Our engineering and landscape drawings have been completed and have also been approved.
- Our name gathering efforts have produces the names of thousands of local veterans who are eligible to have their names on the walls.
- Our Charter Brick Sales have been pretty slow, but have shown some signs of gaining momentum.
- Our fundraising team is just incredible. They pulled off the first annual “Storm Chaser 5K” on 11-10 and raised almost $4,000.00!
- We held our ceremonial groundbreaking on Veterans Day-November 11th, 2018.
We’ve got some work to do, but with our team of volunteers and the incredible amount of support from our community and our donors, there is no doubt that we are right where we need to be. Thank you all who have donated or helped out at an event. If you’d like to get more involved, drop us a message here or on facebook at facebook.com/gmvvmf.
Brett
