Proceeds from a fundraiser being planned by the Mount Olive Veterans Memorial Committee will go toward the committee’s planned addition to the Mount Olive Veterans Memorial located across West Main Street from Steele Memorial Library. It will fund a memorial wall, topped with a bald eagle, in the area by these rose bushes. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Lynn Joyner, left, talks about ticket sales for a fundraising concert being planned by the Mount Olive Veterans Memorial Committee. At right is veteran and committee member Ray Harrell. Joyner spoke about the project during the committee’s Aug. 2 meeting. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
Veteran Al Southerland, a member of the Mount Olive Veterans Memorial Committee, looks at tickets for a fundraising concert for the memorial. Gaylon Pope and Sweetwater will perform a God and Country concert at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12, at First Pentecostal Holiness Church. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)
A fundraising effort including a raffle and a concert complete with door prizes over the Veterans Day weekend in November is being planned by the Mount Olive Veterans Memorial Committee.
Proceeds will go toward the committee’s planned addition to the memorial located across West Main Street from Steele Memorial Library.
The project is expected to cost about $20,500.
The memorial was dedicated on Nov. 10, 2014, but has never been completed as originally envisioned.
The three stones that make up the memorial are inscribed with the names of local veterans who have died in wars dating back to World War I.
“We have a lot happening that weekend,” committee Chairman Steve Wiggins said during the committee’s Wednesday, Aug. 2, planning session. “We have the Pickles, Pigs and Swigs (Nov. 10-11) so we are going to have music downtown, and we are going to have barbecue and so forth so it is going to be a perfect time for us to do what we are going to do.
“This will be the Sunday afternoon of the occasion is how I feel. We are going tp continue working until this (memorial) is completed. We are going to keep working on this thing.”
Gaylong Pope and Sweetwater will perform a God and Country concert at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12, at First Pentecostal Holiness Church.
The church has capacity to seat a little over 400 people, Wiggins said.
Lynn Joyner was able to get the tickets printed at no cost, he said.
“The way we are going to present those tickets, we are actually asking for a contribution,” Wiggins said. “We are asking for a $20 contribution to our Memorial Wall fund and in exchange for your contribution, we’re going to give you a ticket to a free concert which is going to be at First Pentecostal Church.
“Lynn is here to present the tickets, but before she does I want to tell you we were hoping to sell at least 400.”
Joyner said she had sold 185 tickets prior to the meeting and plans to finish out 200, leaving 300 to be sold.
The tickets have stubs that are easily detached, she said.
“You want to get the person’s name and phone number they can be reached at because we are still in the process of deciding if we are going to do door prizes,” Joyner said. “If we do, this (stub) is what we are going to put in the box.”
Also, if the person does not attend the concert, their contact information will be available, she added.
Joyner said she keeps a running record of names and contact numbers as a backup.
“Then when we get to the door that day, if anybody has misplaced their ticket, because they are buying them now for November — it is possible they could do so we could verify real quick and easy that they have a ticket,” she said.
Joyner said the use of the church is being donated.
“It has been so amazing,” she said. “You just can’t imagine how people are on board with this. It is just fantastic. People are enthused about it.
“Everybody knows a veteran or they are one.”
Also, using the tickets for a chance to win door prizes would be an incentive for people to make the $20 donations, she said.
Committee member Harlie Carmichael asked if someone had to be present at the concert to win a door prize.
Wiggins agreed with Joyner who said that since names and phone numbers will be on the stubs that the ticketholder would not have to be present to win.
Plans are to talk to local businesses and industries and organizations about possible donations, Wiggins said
“We talked about doing one side (of the memorial site),” he said. “We feel like we can come up the money for one and then we will move to the other.”
The committee, originally established in May of 2012, had been inactive for years until earlier this year when it reorganized.
The committee has been looking at two additions to the site.
The one that will be funded first is a memorial wall with a bald eagle perched on top. It will be created by McLamb Monument Co. of Goldsboro.
The base and eagle will be about 6-feet, 8-inches tall, said Gordon Coombs with McLamb Monument Co. The eagle is 40-inches tall, he said.
It will take five to six months for the monument to be placed once it is ordered, Coombs added.
The memorial wall will be placed near the front of the site on the Mount Olive Housing Authority office side.
While not part of the current project, the committee is also looking to a second memorial wall that will include a stone on which the emblems of the six branches of the U.S. military — Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy, Coast Guard and Space Force — will be displayed .
A bald eagle statue will be on top.
It will be placed near the front of the site on the North Chestnut Street side.
The project also includes more lighting and replacing two wooden benches.
The benches were replaced Aug. 2 with blue all-weather benches donated by the Exchange Club of Mount Olive.
The public is reminded as well that pavers are still being sold for the Walk of Honor at the memorial site.
The costs are: $250 for a 6-inch by 9-inch paver (up to three lines of 20 characters); $400 for a 9-inch by 9-inch paver (small logo and up to three lines of 20 chracters); $700 for for a 9-inch by 9-inch paver (corporate logo only); and $1,000 for a 12-inch by 12-inch paver (donor submits design).
For more information, or for tickets send an email to Davis at secretary@townofmountolivenc.com or call her at 919-658-9539, ext. 106.
