Veterans, Members and Friends,
On April 28, 2006,
we posted a feature on www.kwva.org which asserted that HONOR NEVER SLEEPS. The same basic
feature appeared in the
May-June 2006 Graybeards, pages 25-26. Both articles stressed the mission necessity
of caring for the National Memorial for which the KWVA raised the largest single block of funding to build.
This issue (September-October 2006) of The Graybeards is a continuation of the introductions in
the May-June Issue and on the website. Elsewhere you will find an expression of the need from Colonel Bill
Weber, Executive Director of the Memorial Foundation. Also in this issue is the CHALLENGE SCORECARD
which is correct as of the day the magazine went to press. The
CHALLENGE SCORECARD
will be displayed on the website and updated as frequently as necessary.
Elsewhere in the issue is a "how to do it" story* of Chapter 142, Frederick, Maryland,
which challenged all KWVA Chapters to pledge to raise and donate significant money to support the
NATIONAL MEMORIAL. Chapter 142 is not just talking the talk, they have done the walk, and
are still doing so. A little over a year ago Chapter 142 donated $2,000 to the Memorial Foundation but this
was just a token of what was needed. Realizing it would take more than a single Chapter to support
this endeavor, they decided to challenge the rest of the Chapters to meet or exceed their donation of $2,000
per year for a total of $10,000. In just fifteen months, using the Rose Of Sharon and small American
flags, they reached their pledge. As depicted on the cover of The Greybeards they donated the remaining
$8,000 to the Korean War Veterans Memorial Fund, at the monument on July 24 this year—five years’ work done
in a fifteen months!!
On July 24, 2006, some fifteen months after pledging to raise $3,000 a year until their $10,000
MEMORIAL CHALLENGE pledge was made, Chapter 142 met in Washington, D.C. at the Memorial and presented
the balance of their first $10,000 in full, a check for $8,000. In less than two years their pledge was
raised by the chapter, most of it through numerous ROSE OF SHARON sales at parks, parades,
carnivals, picnics and numerous other places, again, and again, and again.
I especially challenge every National, Department and Chapter leader, and all of our other members, to
read the articles and ACCEPT THE MEMORIAL CHALLENGE.
National President, KWVA/US
Chairman of the Board
*All Chapters are invited to share fund-raising strategies that worked in meeting the
MEMORIAL CHALLENGE. Write them up and send them to Art Sharp, Editor, The Graybeards.
