Community All Veterans Monument
Committee members traveled to neighboring communities and took pictures of defferent monuments and memorials, to get some ideas for ours. A design was chosen in the spring of 2006. We contacted Joe and Tammy Ackermen, owners of the Nevada Monument Company, and met with them many times, to help us with our project.
Applications were made available at many of our local businesses and Pete Wilkening, a long time member of the legion, sent out many applications to people originally from the area, who had moved away. The response was fantastic! We not only had local names, but many from all over the U.S.
A fund raiser was held in the fall of 2006, sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary and our local businesses. With the money raised from this and the purchase of bricks, we were ready to break ground.
The city of State Center was generous enough to donate the property on the east side of the Rose Garden for our project. So in the summer of 2007, Hollis Stier dug the footings, poured the concrete pads, and the two base walls.
By the spring of 2008 we had over two hundred printed bricks ready to be placed on the walls. Todd and Sue Rogers donated all their time to lay bricks for us. They did a wonderful job of it too! The monument company then placed the center monument stone and the top wall caps.
Our dedication ceremony was held at the beginning of the 50th Rose Festival, in June 2008. That fall, Luke Byerly contacted the legion to see if he could do the landscaping around the monument, as he was working towards his Eagle Scout Award with the Boy Scouts. He did a great job and we thank him enormously!
If you are passing through or by State Center, please take a minute to stop at our monument. When you do, you will notice there are blank bricks in the walls. These bricks are available for anyone interested in purchasing one, for a loved one or friend who has served or is still in the military. The cost is $125.00/brick. The monument company prints them on stie, once or twice a year.
If you would like an application, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: Harland G. Pfantz American Legion Post #122 P.O. Box 42 State Center, Iowa 50247 Attn: Brick Application