The Loyal Soldiers Sunday School Class at Mount Olive First Baptist Church has made a $2,000 to the Mount Olive Veterans Committee. Class member Doug Courchene, second from left, presents the donation to committee Vice Chairman Tommy Brown during the committee’s Wednesday, Nov. 8, meeting. From left are American Legion Post 103 Commander William ‘Bill’ Manuel, Courchene, Brown, and committee members Ray Harrell, Steve Wiggins and Harlie Carmichael. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)

The Loyal Soldiers Sunday School Class at Mount Olive First Baptist Church has made a $2,000 to the Mount Olive Veterans Committee. Class member Doug Courchene, second from left, presents the donation to committee Vice Chairman Tommy Brown during the committee’s Wednesday, Nov. 8, meeting. From left are American Legion Post 103 Commander William ‘Bill’ Manuel, Courchene, Brown, and committee members Ray Harrell, Steve Wiggins and Harlie Carmichael. (Steve Herring|mountolivetribune.com)

The Mount Olive Veterans Committee voiced a collective “wow” to the announcement of a $2,000 donation by the Loyal Soldiers Sunday School Class at Mount Olive First Baptist Church.

Class member and Air Force veteran Doug Courchene, who served on the original Veterans Committee, presented the donation during the committee’s Wednesday, Nov. 8, meeting.

It will go toward the committee’s effort to complete the Veterans Memorial on West Main Street.

Also during the meeting, Mount Olive District 4 Commissioner and veteran Tommy Brown was elected vice chairman and the committee was updated on its fundraising efforts.

Those efforts included a Sunday, Nov. 12, God and Country Concert by Gaylon Pope and Sweetwater at the Mount Olive First Pentecostal Holiness Church.

“I tell you, when you have got a good cause it really helps,” said Chairman and At-large Commissioner Steve Wiggins. “It is real easy to pitch that to people — something that they believe in and that they can see the worthiness of it and that it is worthwhile.”

The committee, originally established in May 2012, had been inactive for years until earlier this year when it reorganized.

The Veterans Memorial was dedicated on Nov. 10, 2014, but not completed as originally envisioned. Completing the memorial is the goal the committee is working toward.

The three stones that make up the memorial are inscribed with the names of local veterans who died in wars dating back to World War I.

“I have a desire, and have spoken about it before, about keeping this group autonomous, to keep it functioning until we finally, finally, complete our objective which is to put that final phase in there,” Wiggins said. “I am really encouraged by what we have done this year.

“I really think that if we stay on task and stay on course then it is just possible next year we could have the other part of it done.”

With the $2,000 donation the committee now has about $10,000 to put toward the second phase of a project estimated at between $37,000 and $50,000.

That project would add a memorial wall inscribed with the emblems of the six branches of the U.S. military will be displayed — Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy, Coast Guard and Space Force.

A bald eagle statue will be on top.

It would be placed near the front of the site on the North Chestnut Street side.

Committee members agreed with Wiggins that they would like to see the more elaborate version of the memorial even if cost more and that it is doable based on the success of the current fundraising effort that exceeded its goal by about $10,000.

The committee is in the process of wrapping up that fundraiser that will pay for a memorial wall with a bald eagle perched on top.

The $20,000 wall has been ordered from McLamb Monument Co. of Goldsboro. Delivery will take several months.

The base and eagle will be about 6-feet, 8-inches tall. The eagle is 40-inches tall. It will be placed on area of the memorial next to the Mount Olive Housing Authority building.

Pavers also 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 characters); $700 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 Town Clerk Sherry Davis at secretary@townofmountolivenc.com or call her at 919-658-9539, ext. 106.