WSU News Archive

By Melissa O'Neil Perdue, WSU Tri-Cities

RICHLAND, Wash. —  Ground will be broken at 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 10, for a Veterans Monument at Washington State University Tri-Cities.

The ceremony is on thegrassy area at the corner of Sprout Road and Crimson Way, within view of the Columbia River. The site is outside the East Building at 2710 Crimson Way, Richland. The public is invited.

With veterans now making up about 11 percent of the student body at WSU Tri-Cities, a student organization has taken the lead on raising money and in-kind donations for a bronze statue on campus. Donors include Randolph Construction Services, Columbia Engineers LLC, Columbia Center Rotary Club, and Ice Harbor Pub and Brewery.
 
"I don't want other veterans to feel the way I felt when I got out of the service,” said Scott Dawson, past-president of the Veterans Club Association and Support (VCAS) at WSU Tri-Cities. "When I had first got out of the Marines, I didn’t really know many veterans. It is a difficult transition from being a Marine to being a civilian.”
 
Dawson, one of the speaker’s at Tuesday’s event, believes the Veterans Monument will set the tone that veterans and their goals for higher education are supported and that veterans are not alone. "Stories” will be a bronze monument designed by local artist Tom McClelland.
 
The monument design is an open book that has been left outside and hit by a Columbia Basin dust devil, sending five pages more than 10 feet in theair. It is on these pages that selected submissions will be permanently cast in bronze. Stories, quotes, anecdotes and thoughts from veterans, their families, and communitymembers about military service were collected earlier this year and will beunveiled when the Veterans Monument is dedicated in the fall.
 
WSU Tri-Cities is located along the scenic Columbia River in Richland, Wash. Established in 1989 with upper division and graduate programs, WSU Tri-Cities expanded in 2007 to a full four-year undergraduate campus offering 18 bachelor’s, 10 master’s, and six doctoral degree programs. Learn about the most diverse campus in the WSU system at www.tricity.wsu.edu.

 

Contact:
Scott Dawson, WSU Tri-Cities student, Veterans Club Association and Support past-president, cell 509-308-5104, Scott.dawson@email.wsu.edu
 
Melissa O’Neil Perdue, WSU Tri-Cities Marketing and Communications Manager, 509-372-7319, cell 509-727-3094, moneil@tricity.wsu.edu
 

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