War Veterans Memorial Shrine of American History

The biggest project that was completed during fy 2023 was we began receiving donations in fall 2021 toward building the 6,000 square foot w. paul wolf War History museum. Upon completion (scheduled for march 2023), we will move the artifacts from the current building to the new museum gallery along with installing new reader boards, maps for each major War, and new displays. The anticipated grand opening date of the museum is scheduled for Memorial day weekend 2023. We have a guest book that visitors are encouraged to sign located inside the museum gallery. Data from the guestbook indicates the following number of documented visitors (calendar years 2019 930, 2020 800 (year of covid), 2021 4,356, 2022 3,375. It should be noted that not all visitors sign the guest book. The data also does not capture the number of people who come to walk the grounds and look at the memorials/monuments during off-hours. The grounds are open dawn to dusk and the museums hours are posted on our website honoringforever.org and our facebook page. Current memorials/monuments/macro artifacts located on our 40-acre property include: an 80% replica of the vietnam wall, the rock of the marne division, 7th armored division, korean War, revolutionary War, iraq/afghanistan, purple heart, civil War cenotaph area, world War ii, vietnam War Memorial, watchtower, indianas merci boxcar, two artillery pieces, two navy anchors, and a water buffalo. One of the newest memorials currently in the fund raising phase is the gold star family Memorial. The civil War monument was funded this fiscal year with an anticipated dedication date of spring/summer 2023. We continue to work with organizations and individuals who are interested in sponsoring additional monuments. Our museum has over 2,500 military artifacts in inventory. The displays range from the revolutionary War through current conflicts with representation from all the branches of service. People continue to donate artifacts from family members to the museum so that those pieces of History are not lost. Future plans: - sterling chapel ground has been broken for this building; however, we continue to actively fundraise for this project. Legacy bricks (in honor of/in memory of someone) are still available for purchase. These bricks will be placed on the front exterior wall of the chapel. - indianas merci boxcar the boxcar was media blasted and repainted during the summer of 2022. Shields and ribbons still need to be mounted to the boxcar. Plans are to re-dedicate the boxcar in 2024. The national organization (mercitrain.org) is working on events to recognize the 75th anniversary of the 49 boxcars arriving in america from france in 2024. - pavilion in need of some repairs to make the building weather tight. - pathway of History provide an educational experience outside on our grounds for visitors (e.g., students, Veterans, interested people, etc.) To learn about the various wars and conflicts the united states has been involved in. Some of these monuments include: revolutionary War, civil War, world War i, world War ii, korean War, desert storm, oef/oif, gold star families, and War dogs. - education - actively recruit groups (e.g., students, Veterans, seniors, scouts, bike/car groups, etc.) To tour the museum and grounds. - convert the old museum gallery space into an event space for meetings, dinners, etc. - convert the current torpedo room into a library/research space. We have a large volume of books and other paper documents that researchers would be interested in. We do not receive any oversight from county/state/federal government. We operate through donations from individuals, organizations, and businesses. We are an all volunteer organization except for a part-time curator beginning september 15, 2022. This salary is paid through a grant from the james foundation.