A gift etched in stone

By Lindsay Tice , Staff Writer, Sun Journal
Sunday, January 7, 2007

Restaurant owner says he'll pay to place additional veterans names on the Veterans Memorial Monuments in Veterans Park.

LEWISTON - Until recently, Navy veteran Normand Vallee had never seen the veterans' memorial beside the Longley Bridge. He knew that he, his father and brother were listed on one of the dark marble slabs. But he didn't seek them out until a stranger from Massachusetts stopped by Vallee's Village Inn restaurant looking for directions to the memorial. Vallee took the man over to Veterans Memorial Park and soon found himself gazing at the 10 stones etched with names. He was first impressed. Then inspired.
"I said 'We've got to get more names here.'" And he decided to do it. Vallee has agreed to pay to have one veteran's name engraved on one of the memorial's stones every week. Family members, friends or veterans can drop off names at the Village Inn on High Street in Auburn. Vallee will draw one name a week. At $30 a name, the sponsorship will cost Vallee $1,560 a year.

He doesn't mind the price. "It's giving back," said Vallee, who served in the Navy between 1951 and 1955 and now owns the Village Inn. Dedicated in 2004, the veterans' memorial honors anyone who has ever served in the military, including the National Guard, during peacetime or in war. Currently, 10 stones show the names of 2,160 local veterans, honoring service between the Revolutionary War and the war in Iraq. The memorial can hold up to 24 stones. Engravers are now working on No. 11. The memorial stones are placed at the site during ceremonies held on Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. They are overseen by the Lewiston Auburn Veterans Council.

Names being added
Monday, February 26, 2007

LEWISTON - Norm Vallee has undertaken a project to have more names added to the memorial stones in Veterans Park at the entrance of the Longley Bridge.
Vallee's restaurant, the Village Inn in Auburn, takes the names of veterans and each week someone draws a name. That veteran's name will be placed on the 12th stone in the park. Village Inn will pay for the name.
The first four names drawn were Richard C. Higgins of Hartford, Arthur A. Poussard Jr. of Sabattus, Maurice T. Despres of Auburn and John Norman of Turner.
The L and A Veterans Council will unveil the 11th stone following the Memorial Day parade and ceremony on Saturday, May 26.
Anyone interested in participating in the parade or ceremony should contact Chairman Bert Dutil at 786-2305. The L and A Veterans Council will also host the Vietnam Memorial Wall, which is being sponsored by the Fortin Group and will arrive and be on display Sept. 28 to 30 at Veterans Park.

Representatives from several organizations that belong to the Lewiston Auburn Veterans Council are pictured with Normand Vallee pointing to his name on the fifth stone. From the left are Fern Ronan, Robert Levesque, both Franco Americans Joe Paradis, POW/PH Buddy Labrie, American Legion, Normand Vallee, Emmett Stuart, American Legion, Ray Lemieux, Marine Corps League and Chairman Bert Dutil, Franco American War Veterans.

Vietnam Memorial Wall traveling replica will visit Lewiston Auburn
By Daniel Hartill , Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 10, 2007

LEWISTON - A national funeral home chain, after listening to the pleas of local veterans, is making plans to bring its replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to Lewiston.
The 8-foot-tall, 240-feet long replica is scheduled to be displayed in Veterans Memorial Park in September.
Though the visit won't happen for eight months, planning is already under way.
Motorcycle escorts, school tie-ins and a round-the-clock watch on the site are all being decided upon.
On Tuesday, the City Council approved a measure that would provide some site help, electricity and fencing to the riverside site.
Already, a first meeting of volunteers with the funeral home company, Service Corporation International and its Lewiston-Auburn affiliate, the Fortin Group, drew more than 40 people.
"It was unbelievable," said Bert Dutil, who leads the Lewiston-Auburn Veterans Council.
The demand from veterans to bring the wall to Lewiston-Auburn led Dutil to approach Ann Dehetre-Arsenault at the Fortin Group.
The community was last visited by a replica of the wall in 2001 that was displayed in Kennedy Park.
"People kept saying, 'We'd like to bring it back,'" said Dutil, a Korean War veteran.

When the wall visited South Portland last year, the requests only grew.
Local enthusiasm for the wall is what convinced the funeral company to bring it to Lewiston, said Robert Barnes, a vice president with SCI's northeast division.
The company brings the wall to 20 cities a year. There is no cost.
This wall will be bigger than the previous half-sized replica that came. At three-quarters scale, it will almost fill the edge of the downtown park.
Yet, it's the names - the more than 58,000 people who died in Vietnam - that make the wall moving.
"If it was 3 feet tall and 10 feet long, it would be emotional," said Emmett Stuart, commander of American Legion Post 153 in New Auburn.
The wall has a way of touching the heartache in so many people, whether they went to Vietnam or not, said Stuart, who served during the Korean War era.
Whenever he has visited the wall in Washington or its replicas, Stuart finds himself getting choked up. He finds the names of high school classmates or a particular helicopter pilot he knew.
"It's a tribute," he said. "I think it's going to be awesome. I really do."
Along with the wall, which is transported in 48 panels on a single tractor-trailer, the display also includes artifacts from the war.
Dutil hopes to bring local schoolchildren to visit and learn. There will also be quiet times, when veterans can expect to be alone with their thoughts and memories.
Master Chief Donald Holman, the highest ranking enlisted person at Brunswick Naval Air Station, plans to organize a contingent of Navy volunteers to keep a 24-hours-a-day presence at the site, in part for the late-night visits.
Some veterans tend to visit at 3 a.m., when they can have privacy.
"They come at all hours of the night," Stuart said. "They don't want to talk to anybody. They want to be alone. That's OK."

Veterans ask city: Remember the Maine
By Daniel Hartill , Staff Writer, Sun Journal
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

LEWISTON - A 498-pound shell recovered from the wreck of the USS Maine will get an honored spot in Veterans' Park, if the money can be found to memorialize the relic.
The city may have a tough time finding the needed $10,000 in a budget with a proposed 10.9 percent tax increase attached.
"We're going to do the best we can to assist you," Councilor Normand Rousseau promised at Tuesday's meeting.
The plan to imbed the shell in a granite monument came from the L&A Veterans Council. Chairman Bert Dutil came up with the notion when he noticed that it had disappeared from its former resting place, in the lobby of Lewiston City Hall.
For decades, the shell sat beneath a small plaque that identified it and its origins.
The shell had been on the battleship when it was sunk in Havana Harbor on Feb. 15, 1898. The sinking and the resulting battle cry, "Remember the Maine," helped rally support for the Spanish-American War.
Years later, the wreck was raised and relics were removed. The mast was erected in Arlington National Cemetery. Pieces from the bow adorn a monument in Bangor.
The U.S. Navy presented the shell to the city of Lewiston on June 24, 1912.
When Dutil found it earlier this year, it had been placed in storage by the city.
The shell, from the USS Maine's 10-inch gun, is a tangible piece of American history that ought to be displayed for future generations, Dutil said.
He also understands the city's financial pressure. "I feel terrible asking," he said. "But maybe the City Council can find the money."
One possibility might be the city's year-end surplus, suggested City Administrator James Bennett. By mid-June, the city ought to know how much of that money will be available.
It may be very little. The current draft proposal of the budget calls for $500,000 to be tapped from the surplus.
Councilors encouraged Dutil and the group to begin fundraising right away, perhaps tapping private sources first.
That would be tough. The veterans council is already fundraising, working on the likely $30,000 bill that will come from September's visit by a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
The veterans council hopes to unveil the USS Maine memorial during the visit by the Vietnam wall.

Monument to recall USS Maine sinking
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

LEWISTON - The Lewiston Auburn Veterans Council, with the city of Lewiston, will unveil the new USS Maine Monument at 10 a.m. Saturday, September 1, at Veterans Park.
When the USS Maine was commissioned in 1895, it was the first modern American battleship and the first modern U.S. Navy warship to be built in an American shipyard of materials and components manufactured in the United States.
The Maine visited Portland in November 1895 to receive its silver service and again in August 1897, with the rest of the North Atlantic Squadron. In January 1898, the Maine was ordered to Havana, Cuba, by President William McKinley as part of his plan to pressure Spain into granting independence to the island colony, which was in rebellion.
When the Maine exploded on the night of Feb. 15, 1898, the press and the public blamed the sinking on Spain, and the public and Congressional pressure led to a declaration of war.
"Remember the Maine" became a battle cry, and after the war the battleship was raised, examined and then sunk with honors, in the waters off Cuba. by Joel W Eastman, University of Southern Maine.
The council will also unveil the 12th stone with 216 names on it. At a later date the council hopes to have the program available. For more information, call Chairman Bert Dutil at 786-2305.

Lewiston Auburn Memorial Day Parade Saturday

Guest Speaker: United States Senator Susan Collins
Wednesday, May 23, 2007

LEWISTON - The Lewiston-Auburn "Memorial Day Parade" will begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Kennedy Park formerly known as City Park on Park Street.
Marchers will step off on Chestnut Street, go to Lisbon Street, Main Street, Longley Bridge, around Platz Plaza in Auburn, back to Longley Bridge and end at Veterans Memorial Park, which is between the Androscoggin River and Espo Trattoria restaurant on Main Street.
The parade will include three area marching bands combined to honor America's veterans.
The Lewiston High School band, the Edward Little High School and Auburn Middle School band, and the Leavitt Area High School band and color guard will join to form The ROAR of the Androscoggin.
The custom arrangement of William Billing's Revolutionary battle song "Chester" was prepared by Lewiston band director Jim Alberty.
At the ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park, United States Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, will be the special speaker. Singing the "National Anthem" will be Jeremy Gervais, a college student. The Rev. Barrett Barnes of the diocese of Southwest Florida will give the invocation. The wreath will be placed by United States Navy Captain Dean Krestos of Bath, who is also the grand marshal of the parade and guest speaker at the ceremony.
Mayors John Jenkins of Auburn and Larry Gilbert of Lewiston also will speak at the ceremony. Scot Bradeen of the Lewiston Police Department will play the bagpipe and his wife will play the drums.
Taps will be played by Richard Leblanc, while several songs will be performed by the Just Us Singers with Nel Meservier on the keyboard.
The state commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars will unveil the 11th stone of the memorial, which bears the emblem of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and certificates of appreciation will be given to Vietnam veterans.

Beautiful tribute
Sunday, July 22, 2007

Lewiston - July 17 marked the sixth anniversary of the Lewiston City Council's decision to name a park in honor of our local veterans. It is a fitting time to remember all who helped create such a beautiful and lasting tribute to our veterans.

Joe Paradis, Korean War veteran and POW, provided the vision, leadership and perseverance to bring the park into being. His hard work - he single-handedly collected over 1,400 signatures and 50 letters of support to present to the City Council - shows the power of one individual to make a difference. His efforts have inspired countless others to continue to work hard to provide the benches, monuments and landscaping for the park.

We should all take pride in the Veterans Memorial Park and be thankful that our community is filled with wonderful individuals who give their all to make a difference.

Sen. Peggy Rotundo, Lewiston

Posted By:Donald at July 22, 2007 8:16 AM
Congratulation "Joe Paradis" Don Robbins, Korean Veteran. Princeton Wyoming

Posted By: Chaplain, Paul Bernard at July 22, 2007 12:16 PM
I am pleased to say that I know Joe and Arthur Paradis and have been privileged in working with both of them and other great veterans in the 3rd District. Joe obtained signatures in hopes of getting the lot on Lisbon Street now called "Court House Plaza". Arthur has also been a great inspiration and support to the newly revitalized Turner Memorial Post 111 and the Lewiston Veterans Center and Veterans Park.

God bless them both and God Bless America.

Memorial Stone and Bench Unveiled at Ceremony
Thursday, September 27, 2007

LEWISTON - The Lewiston Auburn Veterans Council hosted a special ceremony to unveil the "Remember the Maine" memorial and the 12th stone honoring veterans on September 1st at the Lewiston Veterans Memorial Park.

The ceremony opened with the National Anthem sung by Melissa Noel. The Rev. Barbara Barth of St. Michael's Church of Auburn gave the invocation and University of Southern Maine professor Joel Eastman provided the history of the USS Maine.
Rear Adm. Kevin McCoy from Washington, D.C., dedicated and unveiled of the new "Remember the Maine" monument.
Tom Trottier of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1603 gave the three cannon shots while Roger Renaud played taps.
The honor guards were made up of American Legion Post 153, VFW Post 1603 and Franco American Veterans Post 31.
The three Legion commanders who unveiled the 12th stone with the logo of the American Legion were Don Dube, Post 22; Emmet Stuart, Post 153; and Gary Veilleux, Post 210.
 

Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert and Auburn Mayor John Jenkins unveiled the new All American City bench. Maurice Marquis closed the ceremony with "God Bless America."
More than 200 people attended.

'Maine' monument, stone to be dedicated
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

LEWISTON - Dedication of the new monument, "Remember the Maine," and the unveiling of the 12th stone with 216 names of veterans will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, at the Veterans Memorial Park.

Honor guards will be present from the Navy in Brunswick, American Legion Post 153 of Auburn and Franco American Veterans Post 31 of Lewiston.
Melissa Noel will sing the national anthem, followed by invocation by Jerry DerBoghosian Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert and Auburn Mayor John Jenkins will welcome the guest present.
Joel Eastman, University of Southern Maine professor of history, will introduce Rear Admiral Kevin McCoy, U.S. Navy, who will dedicate the monument.

The names of the five seaman from Maine who were killed in the USS Maine will be read. They are Millard F. Harris of Boothbay Harbor, Clarence Lowell of South Gardiner, Bernard Lynch of Portland, Frank Talbot of Bath and William Tinsman of Deering.
VFW Post 1603 of Auburn will provide three cannon shots followed by taps played by Roger Renaud.
Commanders of the local American Legions, Emmett Stuart of Post 153, Don Dube of Post 22 and Bob McDonald Post 210, will unveil the 12th stone.
Bert Dutil, chairman of the L/A Veterans Council, will make comments followed by
"God Bless America" which will be sung by Maurice Marquis, of the Marine Corps Leaque, Central Maine Detachment, 810.
All are welcome to attend. There is a new handicap ramp in the parking area of the park. Those attending should bring chairs. For more information, call Bert Dutil, Chairman at 786-2305.

Color guards invited to tribute
Thursday, November 1, 2007

Veterans Council Chairman Wilfred "Willie" Danforth is inviting all color guards, including veteran organizations, military, auxiliaries, fraternal, social or youth organizations, ROTC, Lewiston Cadets, Scouts, to take part in the Veterans Day celebration at 10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11, at the Lewiston Armory.

Anyone interested in participating in the annual Musical Tribute to Veterans should call to be added to the line-up.
All veterans, spouses, family and friends are invited to the free program.
Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day, and it commemorated the end of World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. Fighting stopped at 11 a.m., the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
Veterans Day honors all those living and dead who served with the U.S. armed forces. Unlike Memorial Day, which honors those who have died in wartime, Veterans Day honors all those who have served, in times of peace as well as war.
For additional information, call 777-4759

New "Memorial Monument" to be unveiled at Veterans Park
Thursday, November 8, 2007

LEWISTON - Normand Vallee, a Navy veteran and a man of his word, continues to draw weekly the names of veterans to place on memorial stones at the Lewiston Veterans Memorial Park. Vallee has drawn 36 names to date.
Gerry Cain, representing the Women Marines Association, as a member of the Lewiston Auburn Veterans Council and the council's treasurer, receives all applications for editing before engraving is completed. She also maintains an alphabetical listing of all names and their location on the monuments.
Vallee said he'll continue to have more veterans' names put on the "Memorial Monuments" at the Veterans Park.
Some of the names to appear on the monument to be unveiled on November 11th are Raymond Morin, Harry LaPointe, Taylor N. Smith-Peterson, Linwood Leavitt, Albert Camire, Jean Rousseau, Renald Rivard, Fernand Raymond, Gregoire Bernier, Roy Tassinari, James Bossie, Paul Lane, Raymond Williams, Louis Provost and Daniel Dimambro Sr.

The 14th "Memorial Monument" will be unveiled at 1:00pm on Veterans Day.

In the event of rain, the stone will be unveiled on Monday, November 12th, at 1:00pm

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