The Wall That Heals Garner Visit Rescheduled for April 29 through May 2, 2021

The Wall That Heals will visit Garner’s Lake Benson Park on April 29 through May 2, 2021.

The event, hosted by Show N Tell Ministries, brings the preeminent replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the area for Vietnam veterans, family members and other members of the committee.

The Wall will be open 24 hours a day and is free to the public.

The Wall is a 3/4 scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and travels with a mobile education center. It will be on display at the Garner Veterans’ Memorial at 921 Buffaloe Rd, Garner, NC 27529.

» GROUPS: School & youth groups are encouraged to visit. Please schedule a time.

» PLAN YOUR VISIT: Find out about what to expect and where to go.

Find our more at garnerwall.com

Plans Dashed by Coronavirus, Garner Will Apply Again for The Wall That Heals

The Wall That Heals, a travelling ¾-scale replica of The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, will not be coming to Garner’s Lake Benson Park in April.  The Wall’s display here has been postponed because of the coronavirus.

“The visit hasn’t been cancelled; it has been postponed,” said Tim Stevens, who was spearheading the effort to display the wall here in honor of our community’s Vietnam veterans. “We hope to schedule The Wall to come in 2021 or 2022.”

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund received more than 130 invitations from communities to host The Wall last year and Garner was among the 30 or so communities that were selected.

Stevens said the VVMF would begin accepting invitations for 2021 on May 25, 2020.  The VVMF schedules a national tour with The Wall spending about a week at each of the selected sites. This year’s tour was to visit 20 different states.

“There is no guarantee that we’ll be selected again, but I’m optimistic,” Stevens said. “The VVMF has said it will work with us, and the other sites that had to postpone, to reschedule.”

Most of the donations that were made to bring The Wall to Garner are being saved to use when The Wall is brought here in the next couple of years.

“We had already spent some of our donations on advertising and other start up expenses, but every other dollar has been designated for The Wall in 2021 or 2022,” Stevens said.

The committee that worked on bringing The Wall here this year is expected to pick up preparations where it stopped this year.

“One of the best things we did was set our website, garnerwall.com,” Stevens said. “We have tons of information on the site and we are going to keep it active. We have pictures and stories of about 70 area men who went to Vietnam and other stories on the men from Wake County and Johnston County who were killed in the war.”

Ambassador Volunteers Needed for The Wall That Heals Visit to Garner

Volunteers are needed to be ambassadors at The Wall That Heals during its stay at Garner’s Lake Benson Park on April 16 through 19.

The ambassadors generally will have four-hour shifts during the day and longer shifts at night. The ambassadors will be trained to help guests find individual names on The Wall and to answer general questions about The Wall That Heals and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The training session for all volunteers at 6 p.m., on Wednesday, April 15.

Go to garnerwall.com to volunteer.

Ambassadors will be on hand at TWTH 24 hours a day from when The Wall opens at 12:01 a.m., on Thursday until The Wall closes at 2 p.m., on Sunday.

The Wall That Heals is a traveling ¾ scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. More than 130 communities throughout the United States applied to host The Wall That Heals in 2020 and Garner was among the 34 communities selected to host it.

Able-bodied volunteers also are needed to help assemble The Wall That Heals on Wednesday, April 15 and to disassemble The Wall on Sunday, April 19.  The assembly will begin at 8:30 a.m., and usually takes about eight hours. Volunteer are expected to stay until The Wall is erected, regardless of the weather.

The Wall will be taken down beginning at 2 p.m., on Sunday. It usually takes about six hours to take down the wall and pack it in its truck.

Go to garnerwall.com to volunteer.

Garner’s Heroes Remembered and Honored

Garner’s hometown heroes were remembered and honored on Saturday, Dec. 21 as the community gathered at Lake Benson Park for the Garner Veterans Memorial Wreath Laying and Gold Star Tree Ceremony.

Each branch of the U.S. military was represented as warriors, past and present, entered the memorial carrying a wreath to celebrate sacrifices, past and present.

“We do not decorate this memorial with wreaths. These wreaths are symbolic of our remembrance of the courage and devotion to duty of those who are celebrated here,” said U.S. Army Major General Charles Scott (retired).

The military escort followed the Town of Garner honor guard and bagpiper Jeffrey Hammerstein, the assistant chief of the Wake County EMS. Hammerstein’s haunting notes set a somber, but uplifting atmosphere.

 The Garner Veterans Memorial is an interactive monument. The names, ranks and service are recorded of each of the 66 community men who died while in military service. Their sacrifice is listed by their wars, ranging from the Civil War to the War on Terror.

The five wreaths, provided by the Garner Optimist club, were placed in front of panels explaining military action in each decade, beginning with the Revolutionary War. The wreaths were later moved to the large panels.

The families of the 66 men listed on the memorial also had an engraved gold star placed in their honor on the Gold Star Tree. Gold stars also were placed on the tree in honor of the families of the 19 men who perished in our community while on their military mission.

“The gold stars are a way of honoring the families of the men and women who die in war,” Scott said.

The military escort placed an ornament on the tree in honor of the grieving families and the gold star families who were present had the opportunity to place stars in honor of their loved ones. About a dozen additional stars were added.

“It was much more moving that I had imagined,” said Erik Shepard, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and in the U.S. Army, including tours in Iraq and in Afghanistan. “This event shows that we haven’t forgotten the sacrifices that have been made for us.”

Recently retired U.S. Marine Corps Captain Trey Grissom, a Garner Magnet high graduate, often participated in military functions and at funerals at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., during his enlistment.

“It is good to be able to participate in an event that honors men from my hometown,” Grissom said. “The families of these men know that their community has not forgotten them.”

The Wreath Laying and Gold Star Tree Ceremony was organized by Show N Tell Ministries and sponsored by the Town of Garner and the Garner Veterans Advisory Council. The Garner Optimist Club provided the wreaths and the tree.