Inception & Committee

Inception

In October 2022, the Newberry City Commission discussed a project to build a Veterans Memorial in Newberry and set in motion an investigative process. Commissioner Mark Clark, Retired Marine Master Sergeant, began to work immediately on a vision. 

About that same time, former Florida House Representative Debbie Boyd (Newberry, 2006-10) was given the opportunity to work with the City of Newberry (part-time) on this wonderful project and was brought on-board as staff and project coordinator.

In January 2023, Paula Willis, local artist, joined Mark & Debbie to turn the vision into a conceptual rendering. Over the next few months, she graciously gave of her time and talents and provided a progression of draft sketches which led to a final conceptual rendering.

Mark and Debbie researched other memorials and materials & costs for the different components of the memorial. 

In early February, an ad hoc committee (see pic & below left) was formed. We are fortunate to have a diverse committee who are knowledgeable, very talented, energetic & generous with their time and areas of expertise. Through the end of March, the committee met five (5) times for discussion and all members gave valuable input regarding the memorial design & materials, potential locations within the downtown part of the city, and fundraising & marketing plans. Cheryl Tillman invited her friend, Allen Durrance (graphic designer), to join the team and he created a brand for the project and layouts for professional marketing materials. Debbie and Charity Hall created a website and Facebook page with Allen's graphics. Community outreach and fundraising was discussed and a plan was put in place. 

On March 27th, a very detailed presentation was made to update the City Commission who expressed support  to proceed with the project.

First community outreach: the Newberry Mainstreet Organization Spring Festival on April 1st. Debbie Wright coordinated this with Cheryl, Terry Hoyt, and other member's suggestions and assistance. The committee and City of Newberry would like to thank NMSO for making space so that the Veterans Memorial could have a presence at the festival for community outreach.

UPDATE:

It has now been a year since this website was created. Our committee is still very committed and volunteers many hours for meetings and events.

The committee's main focus today is to try to reach as many citizens as possible to let them know about this amazing community project and to let them know about the opportunity to purchase memorial bricks to honor their loved ones. Please join us in our efforts and help us with this endeavor. Thank you!