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Memorial Park dedication delayed
Will be held Sept. 11, 2016
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Fennimores Memorial Park will be dedicated on Sept. 11, rather than June 14. - photo by Robert Callahan photo

The dedication of Fennimore’s Memorial Park will not be held later this month. Memorial Park Committee co-chair Merry Cooley shared the news during the May 30 Memorial Day program.

“It was six years ago I came before you and said we were going to start working on Fennimore Memorial Park,” she said. “We are this close.”

The Memorial Park Committee announced in April that the Memorial Park would be dedicated on Flag Day, June 14.

“We have come into a bump in the road,” Cooley said Monday. “Two of the tablets were made wrong in South Dakota, and so we have had to send the two tablets back to be remade.”

Memorial Park will now be dedicated on Sunday, Sept. 11, which is Patriot Day.

“You need to watch the park over the summer because they will be bringing the eight other tablets that are correct and we will be laying those in the park,” Cooley said. “So don’t think that this isn’t going to happen, because it will. It will.

“It is just going to be a little bit later. And maybe that will work out. God works in mysterious ways.”

A generous donation from the Lendosky Acts of Kindness Family Fund earlier this year has made the Memorial Park dedication possible.

With the support of area residents and business places, plus donations from 18 states from people with former ties to Fennimore, fundraising efforts have met the Committee’s $160,000 goal.

Twenty-five new pavers were installed last fall and more will be placed this spring. Ten China Black upright tablets will be placed on the cement bases in the center of the Memorial Park’s pathway. These tablets will contain the names of over 1,700 Fennimore area veterans, living and dead, depicting the era in which they served from the War of 1812 to the current War on Terrorism.

Each tablet will be three to four feet wide and five to six feet tall, and will show a picture etching pertaining to that era. One tablet will contain the names of all major and special recognition donors.

Pavers remain available for purchase to remember loved ones or special life events. Anyone wishing to donate should do so immediately to ensure they are recognized in time of the dedication. Donations for perpetual care and some costs involved in the dedication are also needed and all can be made by sending donations to Fennimore’s American Bank, 1055 Lincoln Avenue, in care of the Fennimore Memorial Park Fund.

Members of the Memorial Park Committee include co-chair Dagna Doan, Betty Burkeland, Bob Griffith, Cindy Arndt, Clara Peterson, Linda Stephenson, Peter Finnegan,  Anita Weist, John Volt and Cooley.