Congratulations to the 2020 Arts & Cultture Winner! What did receiving this award mean to Portrait of a Warrior Gallery? After being awarded the Chairwoman’s Award in 2019, the Portrait of a Warrior Gallery volunteers, Veterans Administration work-study individuals and Board of Directors were ecstatic to be awarded the Beautiful Bakersfield Award for the Arts & Culture category in 2020. With 19,000 volunteer hours committed to the gallery last year, it meant the world to all of us that we were recognized by our community for the work we do in Arts & Culture within Bakersfield and Kern County. Winning a Beautiful Bakersfield Award for the second time really validates this gem of our community as a legitimate nonprofit that is always remembering and never forgetting our fallen in Kern County. These awards also bring in sponsors for us like Salty’s BBQ and T-Mobile, along with so many others including Bakersfield citizens sponsoring portraits, Vietnam Killed In Action and Missing in Action service members from our community. Ultimately, this allows us to keep our doors open for free to this community from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. TuesdayThursday and Saturday. Tell us how the gallery continues to give back to the Bakersfield community, especially after this past year. The Global Pandemic did not close the Portrait of a Warrior Gallery this past year. We were one of the few doors that remained open with all volunteers between March of 2020 and today. Portrait of a Warrior Gallery established a COVID-19 Gold Star Family Fund to ensure our Gold Star Families are able to reach out for financial support if needed during these difficult times. Mrs. Nellie Scarborough and Mr. David Vanderpool, both local artists, continued to paint and draw our fallen. We now have only four portraits remaining to be completed for our killed on the battlefield from Post 9/11, and six remain to be completed of the 14 black and white portraits of Kern County Post 9/11 Veterans, who died other than on the battlefield with honorable service to our country. Our board voted to light up the downtown patriotic mural at 20th & Eye streets, across from the gallery, with photocell lighting that comes on automatically when the sun sets and turns off when the sun rises. This keeps the mural illuminated for visitors of the downtown to see at night. It also dresses up this area of the town and makes it safer for pedestrians and reduces chances for vandalism of the mural. METRO | PAGE 12
Beautiful window wraps were added recognizing our Purple Heart and Medal of Honor recipients, which we have three in Kern County and Gold Star Mothers. Additionally, a wonderful picture of Arlington National Cemetery was added. Finally, three flags and poles were added to the front of the building. What are some upcoming projects/events that Portrait of a Warrior Gallery is excited to highlight? Recently, on March 29, which is recognized as National Vietnam War Memorial Day, we held a huge honoring of our 176 Vietnam Killed In Action and three still Missing In Action from Vietnam as well as celebrating the service and sacrifice of our Kern County Vietnam veterans. The gallery will be open in observance of Memorial Day; however, with all the other cemetery services across the community, we do not have an event this day. The newest nonprofit within the gallery is called Missing In Action Remembered (MIAR), and we hope its grand opening will be no later than Veterans Day this year. The MIAR honors and remembers the 82,300 U.S. service members who are still Missing In Action of which 124 are from Kern County. There will be a display of 82,300 dog tags with the name of each service member. Words of encouragement to the community for the remainder of 2021. All of us, the volunteers, docents, VA work-study individuals and Board of Directors wish the best for our community and encourage everyone to come and visit the Portrait of a Warrior Gallery. We have auto hand-sanitizing stations throughout the gallery and great Vietnam veteran docents who will give you a personal tour or a Post 9/11 Veterans Administration work-study who can do the same. It has been a tough year with the COVID-19 pandemic, but our community is patriotic and resilient, and we will come out of this better on the other side of it. – Jason Geis, Sgt. Maj. (Ret.), US Army Portrait of a Warrior Gallery Kern County
