Hopewell Valley Central High School is set to unveil a memorial to two alumni who were killed during the Vietnam war on May 24.
A dedication ceremony to honor Richard Stephan, Class of 1949, and Bruce Backes, Class of 1966 is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Hopewell Valley Performing Arts Center. After the ceremony, the memorial will be unveiled in the front entrance of the school.
The memorial is the culmination of a year of fundraising by a group of seniors who took on history teacher David Bello’s challenge of honoring the two men after learning about Vietnam in his class last year.
Inspired by the individual research projects they did in on servicemen from all over the country who had been killed on the same day as their birthdays, a dozen students decided to take on the project.
“Learning about those individuals gave us a tremendous respect for those who died,” student Alexis Burroughs said in a statement, “Vietnam soldiers didn’t get a proper welcome home.”
With that in mind, the students decided to “welcome home” the two known Hopewell servicemen who died in action in Vietnam.
The memorial, built with $17,000 in private funds collected from local businesses and individuals, includes a wall with cascading water and two display cases with personal objects and photographs that tell the stories of the two men.
The Friday evening program will include a song written and performed especially for the event by student Sarah Twomey.
The soldiers’ families and friends are expected to be at the dedication. The ceremony is free and open to the public.
More information is online at hvrsd.org.
