“At the start of this school year, one of my classes spoke with film director Lynn Novick, who helped produce Ken Burns’s ‘Vietnam War.’ It was disheartening to learn how little our students know about the Vietnam War,” said Ponaganset High School history teacher Christopher Stanley. However, Stanley says his students were genuinely moved by the film and asked if the class could visit the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. “I’m not sure, but I bet I can bring the Wall to you. “

 

And Stanley delivered on his promise, with help from the Foundation in the form of a community grant, as well as from countless other sponsors. He brought the wall to them on Thursday, November 1 when the 74 six-foot panels arrived at the school from Michigan on a flatbed trailer. But it was the students  — collaborating on fundraising events with faculty, community leaders, local businesses, veterans’ organizations, and private foundations — that made the visit of this half-size version of the Vietnam Memorial in D.C. to Ponaganset High School a reality.

"When the Wall comes to a town, it brings people out from all over.... The Wall speaks for itself."

             — Army veteran John Devitt, Founder, The Moving Wall

In conjunction with five days of scheduled events and ceremonies, Ponaganset students are conducting interviews and recording oral histories of local veterans, encouraging meaningful dialogue about lessons learned from the war, developing a greater appreciation of the role that local residents played in that war, and creating an oral history archive that will serve the community for decades to come.

We are pleased and proud to have played a role in this massive undertaking in civic engagement.