I am writing in the hope that you can assist us in acquiring emergency funding that would help us with our escalating costs. This organization constructs the “Walls of Honor” on the Veteran’s Plaza in Nassau County’s Eisenhower Park. This is a nonprofit organization 501-C (3), which has no part of, and has no affiliation with any government agency.
The “Walls of Honor” contains the names of thousands of men and women who have served this nation during war and peacetime. Names are engraved in stainless steel panels mounted on granite walls for a $100 donation. Any veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, National Guard, Reserves, Coast Guard or Merchant Mariners, is eligible. Also eligible are any veterans of any county or state, living or deceased. This fund has also constructed the giant POW /MIA Monument and the world class Vietnam Monument. All donations are completely tax deductible.
As with everything else, the costs for our endeavors keep rising. We realize we will have to raise the fee to install a veteran’s name on the “Walls of Honor.” The price for a new wall is approximately $40,000. The desire among the public to install new names on the walls is as popular as ever but with the costs constantly rising, especially for the stone and the engraved panels, we are cutting it very close each year. We have delayed raising the price to enable veterans who are not financially well off the ability to have their names engraved alongside the many thousands already enshrined. We engrave a minimum of 500 names each year. In 2009, we have room for only 300 names for the unveiling (there is a major discount for engraving over 500 names each year.)
We are desperate. The veterans of Nassau County and this committee would greatly appreciate any timely help that you may offer us that will help us to financially continue our operation this year beyond July. May God bless you and your family. It would be a sin if this honorable endeavor had to cease to exist.
Nicholas Anthony Graziano
Chairman
Nassau County Veterans Monument Fund Inc.
