In 1918 on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the Allied nations and Germany signed a cease-fire agreement that brought World War I to an end. This historic day, known as Armistice Day in Europe, is celebrated as Veterans Day here in America to honor all veterans, living and dead.
This Veterans Day, local veteran organizations will dedicate a new Veterans Memorial Park at the entrance to the Windham Veterans Center. Community members, veteran and non-veteran alike, have been working hard to change the image of the Veterans Center located behind the Windham Mall. And Don Swander, President of the Windham Veterans Association and Commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars, hopes the new memorial park will invite veterans from wars past and present and their families to come and spend time at the Veterans Center.
“Memorial Day is a sad day, but Veterans Day is a time to rejoice over what our veterans have done and are doing,” Swander said. “We need to pay tribute to our veterans who have done miraculous things for our country.”
The Veterans Day celebration will be begin at 11 a.m. at the center with a special flag ceremony and dedication.
“It’s a chance to get out and recognize those who have given us the rights that we enjoy,” said event organizer Don McCormack, past president of Veterans Association and past commander of the American Legion.
Present will be state legislators Bill Diamond, Gary Plummer, and Mark Bryant along with Commander of the Maine Air National Guard General John Bubar and local veterans. Town officials will also formally rename the access road to the Veterans Center as “Veterans Memorial Drive.”
This week, Swander, who is putting the finishing touches on the park before Veterans Day, raced about town trying to hunt down granite for the memorial.
Though Swander refused to divulge details of the granite memorial monument to be placed in the park, he did say it would be themed to “honor and respect everyone who puts on the uniform and goes off to defend their country.”
Swander hopes to put stone benches next to the memorial for people to sit and pay tribute. Joe Gagne of Roosevelt Gardens has offered to plant a few trees to give those benches shade.
R.J. Grondin & Sons has already loamed the park area and layered the access road to the Veteran’s Center with gravel. The Veterans Center later hopes to raise money to pave the road, Swander said.
This September, Boy Scout Gerard Parent landscaped outside the Veterans Center for his Eagle project and inmates from the Maine Correctional Center cleared brush this summer from around the center to widen the access road and make space for the memorial park.
The hope, Swander said, is that improvements to the Veterans Center will draw more active veterans and make it a place they will want to have “send-off ceremonies” and “welcome home celebrations.”
The Veterans Center is currently rented out for weddings and anniversary parties and acts as a headquarters for the Veterans Association and American Legion Post 148.
“We would like to have it be a place that veterans not only feel welcome to come, but want to come because of how it looks,” Swander said. “If we could have that done by Veterans Day, we’ll be in good shape.”
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