Vets Memorial Seeks Funds
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
An ongoing volunteer endeavor like the St. Landry Parish Veterans Memorial is always in need of funding and Veterans Month is the optimum time to provide contributions, says Patricia Mason-Guillory, the executive director for the project.
Mason-Guillory provided the Opelousas Noon Rotary Club on Tuesday with details about two major fund raising opportunities related to the Memorial, as she also detailed her 37-year involvement with U.S. military causes and the Memorial located on La. 182 south of Opelousas.
On Nov. 11, Mason-Guillory is scheduled to host the annual 11:30 am Salute To Veterans funding event, which recognizes St. Landry military veterans at the Yambilee Building west of Opelousas.
Additionally Mason-Guillory described an ongoing brick walkway effort which offers 8×8 bricks at $125 each that contain inscriptions of individual, commercial or military veteran messages of support.
The enlarged bricks are placed along the approach to the Bobby Dupre Visitors Center, which is staffed by volunteers, said Mason-Guillory.
Each of the savers bricks, as Mason-Guillory has labeled them, are larger than the bricks lining the original Memorial walkway, which is undergoing reconstruction, said Mason-Guillory.
Mason-Guillory pointed out that the Memorial requires constant maintenance without a steady revenue source.
“When we started this project in 2004, we were given approval, but there was no budget that went along with that, no nothing. Everything that has been placed out at the Memorial has been donated and we are in need of funding to keep everything up,” Mason-Guillory told the Rotarians.
“The Memorial area is always going to be a work in progress. We don’t have a staff that keeps up the Center. We don’t get grants. We maintain the Memorial with donations and our volunteers,” Mason-Guillory said.
The recently-completed Visitors Center, which received $25,000 in seed money from Dupre, can’t remain open each day of the week, said Mason-Guillory, since the facility is staffed by volunteers.
Occasionally Mason-Guillory said she rushes to open the Visitors Center or provide a tour for the Memorial visitors when she gets a notification on her phone.
The Salute To Veterans initiative this Tuesday, is funded primarily by three levels of sponsorships starting at $100. Top-level sponsors pay $500 for an eight-guest table at the luncheon.
“Last year we honored 132 veterans. It’s really one of the top events of the year, as the veterans have their names called along with their branches of service,” said Mason-Guillory.
Mason-Guillory also outlined her history with military-related causes that began in 1988.
Her son, Mason-Guillory said, was a soldier who participated in Desert Storm-Desert Shield and it was then, she added, that some of the soldiers serving in the Middle East were writing home, asking for letters and everyday items such as snacks and hygiene products.
Along with a number of other individuals whose sons were also serving overseas, Mason-Guillory helped form MASH (Mothers Against Sadam Hussein), which existed to help active soldiers for the next five years.
