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Jake Bosley, left, and Joseph Mitchell were recognized earlier this month for the veterans memorial they built as part of their senior class project.

Vets memorialized by ambitious students

By Karen Peterson

Leader Staff

ST. IGNATIUS —The veterans from St. Ignatius that gave their lives for their country will finally have their names etched in stone in a memorial created by two recent high school graduates.

Joseph Mitchell and Jake Bosley demonstrated the power of an idea as they coordinated the community together to create a memorial that started out as a small graduation project and developed into a responsibility to those soldiers who gave their all.

"Instead of verbal gratification for the vets, I thought there should be a physical one," Mitchell said. "I was told that this project might not work. Some said 'it's too easy to make people mad' but everyone else said that this is the best senior project to come out of this town."

After encountering some potholes along the way, the two said that they realized the project wasn't going to be easy, but that it was still a tribute that was worth doing.

"The idea to create a memorial started when I saw what other towns had and I thought our town needed something like that for all the people that served for our country," Bosley said.

Bosley and Mitchell decided to use their individual strengths to get the project done.

"We divided the project so we weren't working on just one aspect. I worked on the construction and Mitchell did the public relations and fundraising efforts," Bosley said.

The two young men were recognized for their efforts at a ceremony earlier this month. Bosley happened to be away at a baseball tournament when the ceremony took place.

"The veterans that fought for our freedom smoothed out some of those potholes so that we could have opportunity," Toni Incashola said for the Veterans Honor Society at the dedication ceremony. "Joseph Mitchell and Jake Bosley brought honor to the names on this wall, the families and the community. I'd like to congratulate the two; this will represent them forever. People will think of the names on the wall but also the two that created it."

At the ceremony, flags were put up on temporary poles and the Mission Honor Guard lined up with representatives from each branch of service to officially dedicate the memorial.

Mayor Charley Gariepy was also at the ceremony and he thanked all the veterans and the people that are still fighting.

"I'd like to thank the young men for unselfishly giving the community this beautiful memorial. People will come out and look at this and remember," he said.

The memorial is the home of nearly 100 names that are held together by a brick wall that curves around an existing sidewalk next to the police station. Rock from a local field adorns parts of that wall and a ledge rests at the bottom of the names. The American flag is the centerpiece of the monument and one flag from each branch of the military stands at the memorial.

"The wall is already halfway filled up, so we designed it so that if we run out of space for more names we can knock out the ends and follow the sidewalk with more wall," Mitchell said.

The back of the monument features a large lower case "t" and Mitchell said the "t" stood for town.

Things didn't always go as planned Mitchell said but he learned a lot from this project including how to improvise when the flags didn't arrive in time for the dedication ceremony.

"This wasn't easy but I'd do it all again, every aspect," he said.

Earlier this year Mitchell and Bosley had to get their idea for this project accepted by the town council and from there they set up an account for donations that quickly added up into the thousands of dollars.

"People really started paying attention and the project took off," Mitchell said.

Funding was a big worry at the beginning of the project, they said.

"For a while we weren't sure if we could come up with enough funds but then people really started donating," Bosley noted.

Others contributed their time and Mitchell said without that help they wouldn't have been able to do this project.

"We totaled up the hours of volunteer work and if we would have had to pay them, the cost would be around $20,000 in labor that started in April and is still happening," Mitchell said. "I really can't thank Ted and Terry Foust enough for helping, they did so much."

Bosley said his father, a mason, helped design the project.

"My dad, Clyde Bosley, came up with the general design on the computer. Everything all went together after that," he said.

City employee Ray Frey contributed a lot of work to the project, too. He dug out the area with the backhoe and he made the flagpoles.

"Ray likes to joke around. He says that while we are doing our senior project, he is doing his senior citizen project," Mitchell said.

Donations can still be made at the Lake County Bank to the Veterans Memorial Fund.

"We will still need donations for maintenance and to buy new flags when they start to fray and I'd like to plant yellow roses on the backside," he said.

P.D. Vanhoose adorned the top of the Marine Corps flagpole with an eagle. Mitchell said that if anyone else would like an eagle on other flagpoles they may donate one as well.

Mayor Charley Gariepy was at the ceremony and he thanked all the veterans and the people that are still fighting.

"I'd like to thank the young men for unselfishly giving the community this beautiful memorial. People will come out and look at this and remember," he said.