Tribal members, casino employees, local veterans and volunteers have been meeting regularly for months to help organize this week's visit to Leelanau County of the Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall.

Chuck Steward of S-B

The wall – an 80 percent replica of the actual Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. – was to arrive at the Leelanau Sands Casino in Peshawbestown at 10 a.m., Thursday, July 12, to be set up. It was then to be transported to Traverse City for participation in the Junior Royale Parade as part of the National Cherry Festival this evening before returning to Peshawbestown later that night.

Beginning with opening ceremonies at 8 a.m. on Friday in Peshawbestown, members of the public are invited to visit the wall during its stay in Leelanau County through Sunday night. The display will be located in a parking lot just north of the Eagletown Market across M-22 from the Leelanau Sands Casino.

“This has been a huge effort for everyone,” said tribal member Chuck Stewart, who is serving as coordinator of volunteers for the event.

Stewart, who also works fulltime as manager of the Village of Suttons Bay, credited the Eagletown American Legion Post and its commandant, Mikki Pino, for helping to organize the event. Also playing a big role is Joe Kau-Be-Naw, special events coordinator for Grand Traverse Resorts & Casinos.

“While the wall is here, we will need to fill 375 shifts with volunteers in a variety of positions over all four days,” Stewart said.

He added that he’s already lined up about 200 volunteers he can count on, but is looking for more, particularly those willing to serve as “grillmasters” during an outdoor cookout that will be ongoing through most of the event.

Around 120 of the volunteers are members of the Young Marines organization, said Stewart, a former Marine whose affiliation with the youth organization goes back 36 years to his own childhood.

“Pretty much the entire Michigan regiment of the Young Marines will be encamped around the Strongheart Center which will serve as our headquarters,” Stewart said.

The Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall requires a 24-hour security detail that will be provided by the Young Marines with adult supervision, Stewart explained. The nationwide non-profit educational organization instills patriotic values and discipline in its members, age eight through high school age.

In addition to security details, volunteers will also serve as crossing guards on M-22, as parking lot attendants, as golf cart drivers for disabled visitors, as food serving crews, bussers and cleanup crews.

“We’ve organized up to four shifts each day with a minimum of six volunteers per shift,” Stewart said.

Stewart noted that local businesses have also volunteered to help with the event.

A crew from KAL Excavating in Omena will help set up the traveling wall when it arrives; and a crew from Seeco Contracting will help disassemble it when it’s time to pack up and leave.

The wall is owned and managed by the American Veterans Traveling Tribute (AVTT) an organization based in Minnesota. AVTT organizes a variety of patriotic displays that travel throughout the country each year.

“AVTT sends a caretaker and provides oversight,” Stewart said. “They provide the brains, but we provide the manpower.”

Grand Traverse Resort & Casinos special events coordinator Kau-Be-Naw noted that the traveling wall is the largest of its type in the country. There are five similar, but smaller, traveling Vietnam Memorial walls in existence.

The one visiting Leelanau County stands over eight feet tall at its apex, and is over 370 feet long. Accompanying the wall are nine “Cost of Freedom” displays – memorials represented in gold dog tags under glass to remember and honor all who died in service since Vietnam, including 9/11. An art display also accompanies the wall.

Kau-Be-Naw said the names of three members of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians appear on both the Vietnam Memorial wall in Washington, D.C. and on the traveling wall. Tribal member John Lawrence Burgess, an Army Specialist, was listed as missing In action in Vietnam. Tribal members Sgt. Charles Vincent Howard and Spec. Melvin Udelson Wangeshik were killed in Action in Vietnam and are also listed on the wall.