The Garland County Veterans Memorial Committee has plans for a fundraiser to help defray the costs related to upkeep of the Veterans Memorial and Military Park, 118 Orange St.
First Baptist Church, 2350 Central Ave., will host the April 21 event, which will be free and open to the public.
"So you're welcome to come, bring your family, bring your children," Tom Wilkins, president of the committee, said. "One of the things that we're putting emphasis on ... is we're trying to get the youth, the people in the classrooms, more educated about what veterans really stand for."
The plan is to have military members and veterans speak at the event about their service.
"I'm involved with a program we're doing with the public schools now -- 9 through 12," Richard Green, the committee's treasurer, said.
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"We're putting in their curriculum about military service, emphasis on the National Guard in the state and trying to increase our recruitment for the National Guard in all the services, but that's important.
"We're going to have many military members here at our fundraiser. Some of them will be speaking to tell what they've done for our nation and the importance of it. So we're involving the schools in this project," he said.
Other speakers at the event will include Gene Ho, a professional photographer for former President Donald Trump; retired Air Force Col. Keith Keck from Hot Springs Village; and Larry Brown, father of late Navy SEAL Adam Brown.
Part of the reason for the fundraiser is to help pay for repairs to damage from vandalism at the park and to add new lighting and cameras.
"The flagpoles were actually ripped out of the ground or broken in half, and several of our flags were stolen," Wilkins said, noting the flags cost $150-200 each. "This is holy ground to us. We picked this out in 2009 ... but since then, this has grown a huge amount back here."
The Hot Springs Police Department has stepped up patrols of the area, Wilkins said, and one of their maintenance men, Steve Quast, was questioned while he was making some repairs.
"Steve was down here repairing things a day or so after I went over to talk to (Chief) Billy (Hrvatin)," he recalled. "And the police stopped him twice out here and said, 'What are you doing? You're doing something with these poles.' He said, 'Well, I'm trying to repair them.'"
When the organization was looking to create the Fallen Hero Memorial in 2014, the community was able to raise all the money needed for the statue in one night.
"We knocked it out of the park, or the people did, the community did, and we raised I believe it was right at $68,000-something, which paid for that monument over there," he said, referencing the 2014 event. "I'm not saying that our goals are that high, but I am saying that we have a stellar lineup of people that are going to be here."
Another reason for the fundraiser is to perpetuate the upkeep for the facility, Wilkins said.
"The reason we're doing this is to raise some funds so that we can perpetually keep this going," he said. "We have a 50-year lease with the city of Hot Springs. ... I'm hoping that those people that live long enough, for another 30 or 35 or more years, that there'll be somebody there to pick up the torch, if you will, and keep these grounds, not only growing, but literally the flowers and the beautifulness, the shrubs and everything, keep it all pristine."
The only fundraising effort for the memorial at this time is for the bricks and pavers, Green said.
"Our only basic income is through the pavers and the bricks, but we don't have a lot of money for that (with) the expense of getting them," he said. "But that's our main source of money. We've had a few donations that have come in. We had one person that when they heard about the vandalism gave us some money to help out a little bit."
Anyone who wants to volunteer to help the committee can call Wilkins at 501-622-9570.
The Garland County Veterans Memorial and Military Park has suffered vandalism several times over the past several months. (The Sentinel-Record/Donald Cross)