The site has been chosen, plans are underway and the Veterans Memorial Fundraising Committee has begun efforts to raise money for the new memorial.

The memorial will be built off of Homestead Road, in the field adjacent to the Southern Human Services Center.

Renee Price is an Orange County Commissioner and committee member. She says she has backed the memorial from the beginning, and now that everything else has been decided, it’s time to start raising money.

“I think once people know that something is happening; the momentum is there; it’s real, then they’ll start giving.”

The committee presented renderings at the walk-through to show board and community members what the finished memorial could look like. The memorial plan will have four different sections, or rooms. Each will have a different theme such as: family, freedom or sacrifice. There will also be a spot with an American flag toward the middle.

“That will have somewhat of a formal design around it. The rest of this is very informal and natural. But around the flagpole it will have kind of ordered and regimented, if you will, design elements,” said David Swanson – the landscape architect for the memorial.

He says, while the design for the project was important, it was also important to incorporate preservation into the project.

“The scale of this is, as we say, it’s four outdoor rooms, but they’re all set into a natural grove of trees which is these beautiful, I would say 100 year old trees.”

But before these outdoor rooms can be built around the trees, Fundraising Chairman Lee Heavlin says it’s going to take a lot of community effort.

“Anyone who wants to participate in raising money, it’s going to take a lot of people and their energy to build what we need – which is about $250,000 to $300,000.”

But Price says she thinks Orange County residents will realize the importance of the memorial, and will want to help.

“A lot of people may think of veteran’s memorial; they think military; they think war. But this is about—yes indeed, wars occur – but nonetheless, we do have to celebrate our freedoms and this is one way of doing that.”

The fundraising committee says they are hoping to work with church groups, schools and veterans groups to make the Orange County Veterans Memorial a reality.

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