Rosamond excited about wall display
Memorial visit starts Tuesday at Westpark Elementary School
ROSAMOND — The Antelope Valley Mobile Vietnam Memorial Wall is coming to Rosamond.
The AV Wall will be on display Tuesday to Nov. 12 at Westpark Elementary School, 3600 Imperial Ave. The display is a collaboration between Southern Kern Unified School District, Rosamond Municipal Advisory Council and Rosamond Chamber of Commerce. Gates open at 4 p.m. Monday. The AV Wall will be open for visitors 24 hours a day until 3 p.m. Nov. 12.
“We’re very, very excited about it,” Southern Kern Unified Superintendent Barbara Gaines said previously. “We want to invite everyone to come out.”
A candlelight ceremony is scheduled for 8 p.m. Nov. 10. The names of three Rosamond residents are on the AV Wall. The district has located two of the three families and is still searching for the third. The Rosamond High Early College Campus Cadet Corps will conduct a flag folding ceremony during the candlelight ceremony and present the families with the folded flags.
A Veterans Day ceremony with guest speaker Vietnam veteran Gerry Rice is scheduled for 11 a.m. Nov. 11. The Veterans Day ceremony will include a Vietnam veteran lapel pin presentation. The district also has an essay contest and will award high school scholarships at the Veterans Day ceremony.
Southern Kern needed benches to have a place for visitors to sit and reflect. The district couldn’t purchase the benches they wanted; however, it does have a construction trades Career Technical Education program. Students in the program built eight benches with backs and painted them red, white and blue.
The AV Wall is a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial black granite wall on the Washington Mall that was designed by artist Maya Lin. It is cared for by Point Man Antelope Valley, a nonprofit, faith-based veterans outreach organization that is fully financed by donations.