2010 Dedication Dinner

The 2010 Dedication dinner and dance for the Brooke County Veterans Memorial Park was a

 tremendous success. There were around 500 tickets sold for the event and the evening was filled 

with warmth and honor for the veterans of the county. 

Supreme Court Justice Thomas McHugh delivered the keynote address, giving an account of his own

 time in the service and delivering a surprise award for James Lee.

Foundation President, James Lee, announced that nearly $700,000.00 has been raised toward the

 construction of the Memorial Project. That amount includes $400,000.00 from a federal appropriations

 committee. Representative Alan Mollohan was on hand to announce the funding and to encourage

 the group in its efforts. 

Lee also said that $125,000.00 in in-kind services from Keith Yost Construction

 and major donations from Paul Billiard, Bill Walden and the Franklin Volunteer Fire Department were

 a part of the total.


Rev. Clarence "Wib" Hileman was honored as the "Veteran of the Year".  Rev. Hileman served in the

 Pacific Theater after being drafted in 1944. Initially, he was involved in the 

liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation. He was later deployed to Okinawa, Japan near the end of the

 war. On arriving there, he said that he saw many dead Japanese soldiers lying along the way. On the

 day before the Japanese surrender, he said that he shot a Japanese soldier and regrets that he had 

to take a life so close to the end of the war.


Rev. Hileman also credits the dropping of the atomic bomb for saving his life and the lives of many

 thousands who would have died in an invasion of Japan.

The foundation also recognized Annabelle Hayward from Beech Bottom. Ms. Hayward served in WWII

 in the Army Nurse Corps. Amazingly, she treated another Brooke County native, John Chernenko,

 when he was wounded. Ms. Hayward couldn't attend for health reasons. Her grandson, Greg

 Shepherd accepted the award on her behalf.


Also on hand at the dinner was the design team from the Pittsburgh Art Institute and the architects 

from Heritage Architectural Associates of Wheeling.