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Staff Writer
Hamburgers and hot dogs are
more than just finger foods for a group of Deltona veterans.
The munchies are another way to bring them closer to a dream
of building a museum of military memorabilia in Elkcam
Boulevard's Veterans Memorial Park.
Only about $10,000 into their goal of $150,000, according
to the chairman of a nonprofit veteran's partnership
organization, the $500 raised from food sales at a Nov. 11
Veterans Day fundraiser and commemoration means a lot.
But it's not enough, said the nonprofit organization's
chairman, Major "Mick" Cotton, a former Marine who served in
Vietnam. The veterans want to raise half the cost of a
$300,000 building and fill it with weapons, uniforms and
other pieces of history that will teach the growing
community what veterans have done for the country.
The nonprofit, called Veterans Community Education
Partnership for West Volusia, joined hands with the city of
Deltona in 2005, which has promised to match up to $150,000
in in-kind contributions and funds.
"The need for this museum is to educate the public about
the contributions veterans make to our community and our
country, especially those that have given their lives," said
fundraising chairman Dale "Moses" Roeder. "There's a lot of
veterans in town, especially in Deltona."
Children in particular will be educated, said Cotton. He
hopes once the museum is built, veterans can bring students
to the park and show them "visual history."
The idea for the museum has been around for about two
years, said Cotton. Former Mayor John Masiarczyk helped
spearhead the project and the ball just began rolling in
2005.
But progress has been slow, said Cotton. First, the
organization had a hard time securing its nonprofit status
because the Internal Revenue Service had too many other
nonprofits to approve after Hurricane Katrina.
During the just-ended election cycle, solicitations were
put on hold, in part because Masiarczyk was busy campaigning
for a County Council seat.
However, the veterans are picking up the fundraising pace
again, said Roeder. Contributors can purchase memory benches
or have the name of any Deltona veteran they would like to
be remembered carved on a wall.
The park itself is already the pride and joy of many
active area veterans like Ken Cosgrove, who weeds and cleans
around the war memorials, the Vietnam-era tank and a
military helicopter on Saturday mornings, and Roeder, who
maintains a Web site called
www.vcepinc.org
Now, they just hope to turn the architecture plans into a
real building before the December 2007 Deltona fund-match
deadline runs out.
sara.kiesler@news-jrnl.com
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