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I thought some of the Vets on this board might find this interesting.

Several of the teachers in my high school got  together at the beginning of the year and thought it would be appropriate and educational to start a school  wide Veteran’s Memorial project.  The idea was to get the students involved in a multi–disciplinary project that would help them to learn more about those who fought and died for our country.   Originally the memorial was to be put on the campus, but the Veteran’s group that has helped us, requested that it be put in a park near the High School that they had helped to build.
The memorial was to be in memory of those who fought and died for our country, and had lived in our local area.  We live in a small town (@5500 people) in Wyoming .  Our town has only been around since the early 1900’s, so we only had to include those who fought in WW1, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf (although no-one from our area was killed in that action).  
My Art students started out by each student designing a memorial.  With those 110 or so designs, a committee of teachers, who had started the project, picked out the best 15 designs.   We then had a group of  Veterans come in and pick out the best design that they felt represented their feelings toward their fellow veterans.   I then had one of my best students refine the original drawing, adding in parts of other designs that the Veteran’s group had liked.  
The design that they picked is a circular ring that will be put in a park.  The ring allows entry through one point.   There is a circular stone bench inside the ring with a flagpole in the center.  The flag is a bronze “Battle flag” that has been through “action”, with holes and tatters.  There is a stone walk way that surounds the ring and leads to the curb.   On the inside of the ring, each Veteran has a copper portrait, conflict they fought in, age, and date they were killed in action.   On the outside of the ring are the seals of each of the different branches of service; including: Army, Navy, Marines, Coastguard, Airforce, and Army Air Corps.
At this time the refined design is going to the Cad classroom to be drawn to scale.   After that, two of my better students will create a clay scale model of the memorial.   The History classes will research the names of the Veterans that died during those conflicts.   Each name will go on the memorial along with a picture of the Veteran.   The Econ classes will start doing some estimates for construction, and start fundraising.  The Visual Communications classes are going to put up a web sight to show the progress of the project, along with Video,  that is going to make a documentary of the work.
Many of the students have several of these classes, so they get to work on different aspects of the project.    Some students are very excited about the project, including the original designer, but many just can’t connect with project, yet.  Hopefully as it becomes more of a reality they will connect with it more and come to realize how much  the Veteran’s have done for our country and the freedom they enjoy because of  their sacrifices.
Just though that some of you  Veterans would like to see something like this even if it is relatively small.  
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