Now that the new Starke County Veterans Memorial Plaza has been dedicated, efforts are underway to make sure that both memorials on the courthouse square continue to honor fallen service members for generations to come. The Starke County Park Board last week established the Starke County Veterans Memorial Maintenance Fund at the Starke County Community Foundation.
Project committee member Kathy Norem told the park board that the permanently endowed fund will be a way for residents to donate toward the monuments’ maintenance. “They would be specifically for those monuments, if they needed flags, if they needed new bricks, and they can defer that and turn it back in to continue to grow the fund,” Norem explained.
She said she personally donated $500 to take advantage of the foundation’s Giving Tuesday match. Another $4,000 will come out of the money left over in the non-permanent fund that was established for the Memorial Plaza’s construction.
County Attorney Marty Lucas explained that the money is then invested by the community foundation. “They do a running average of several years of income, and then they make distributions out of these so that they always grow, and so the amount that they pay out, of course, depends on how much money they generate,” Lucas said.
A subcommittee made up of representatives from the Knox VFW and each of the county’s three American Legion posts, as well as three residents appointed by the park board, will make recommendations to the park board on how to use the money. Lucas said the subcommittee will also serve as a liaison to the park board and decide on which activities and events should be allowed at the Memorial Plaza.
Donations to the Starke County Veterans Memorial Maintenance Fund can be made online at nicf.org or by sending a check to the Northern Indiana Community Foundation, PO Box 807, Rochester, IN 46975, with “Veterans Memorial Maintenance Fund” in the memo line.
