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VOL. 2/ISSUE 47
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
BREAKING NEWS: St. Lucie County is site of new veterans nursing home (see Page 4)
Veterans Council hears about Walk of Honor Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE
patrick.mccallister@yahoo.com
Floridians have a chance to honor service members and veterans into perpetuity at the State Capitol. At the first regular meeting of the Florida Veterans Council for the 2015 legislative session, John Haynes, chairman emeritus of the Florida Veterans Foundation, said 4- by 8-inch bricks that’ll form the Florida Veterans Walk of Honor are now available for donors to order. “There are several million veterans that qualify (to be named on the memorial bricks),” he told the council. “All I can say is, it’s first-come, firstserved.” The State Legislature authorized creation of the
Veterans Walk of Honor earlier this year as part of the Florida GI Bill. In an interview after the meeting, Haynes said that construction will start in early November. The walkway, when done, will be 12 feet wide and 500 feet long with about 27,000 bricks. It’ll be in the courtyard between the Old Capitol, now the Florida Legislative Research Center & Museum, and the Capitol Complex that houses the offices and chambers of the State House and Senate in Tallahassee. Thirty of the bricks are dedicated to the 26 Medal of Honor recipients from Florida. Haynes said the four extra brick spaces are reserved out of pragmatism. “There’ll be more wars,” he said at the council meeting. And presumably more Medal of Honor recipients. Haynes said in the interview that it’ll cost about $40 to $50 a brick to lay the Walk of Honor, or about $1 million to $1.3 million.
There’re already bricks in the courtyard that have to be removed, adding to the expense of building the Walk of Honor. Additionally, the new bricks have to be high quality to handle decades, if not centuries, of foot and occasional vehicular traffic. The foundation is asking donors for $250 a brick. “They can have name, rank, decorations he or she might have,” Haynes said. “You can put on there things like date of birth, date of death, killed in action.” Donors must cover the entire cost of building the walkway. “There’s no government funds of any kind involved in this project,” Haynes said. “It’s all private donations and the sale of the bricks.” In addition to donating for the bricks, people can get miniature versions for $25 each to keep. Haynes said donors can pur-
See WALK page 4