More than 60 people have been nominated for a new memorial to veterans who attended Valley High School in New Kensington.
Nominations are being sought as work continues on the memorial outside the front of the school. Organizers expect it to be ready for a dedication on Veterans Day, said Lt. Col. Wayne Sodowsky, senior Army instructor for the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Valley High.
The memorial is expected to be substantially finished by then. More work will be done in the spring.
The Veterans of Valley High memorial will be in a 48-by-36-foot area where a Ten Commandments monument stood before it was removed. It’s intended to honor any student who attended the school since 1956 and went into military service.
On Friday, Sodowsky’s students and other student volunteers worked on building the footer for the memorial’s wall, which included placing the wooden form, gravel, dirt and rebar. They expect to return Saturday to put in the concrete, Sodowsky said.
“The students have been doing great, learning as we go,” he said. “It’s gone a little bit slower than expected, but we are still making good progress.”
Sodowsky said most of the 64 veterans nominated so far have been verified. The Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Lower Burrell is helping with that, he said.
Future veterans will also be recognized. One will be Evan McGinnis, 18, a senior who is in the delayed entry program for the Navy, Sodowsky said.
The names of veterans will be placed on bricks. A $25 donation is requested but not required, Sodowsky said.
Nomination forms are available by contacting Sodowsky by email at wsodowsky@nkasd.com.
The memorial will include flags for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. The New Kensington Garden Club will be helping with new landscaping, which Sodowsky said will include red poppies.
Allegheny Valley Habitat for Humanity is assisting with the project. Siemens, which has a factory in New Kensington, gave $6,000 toward the memorial, and its employees will be serving as mentors to students and participating in a speaker series.
