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Project honors veterans’ contributions
Published December 25, 2009
SEGUIN — Got a veteran who has everything and don’t know what to buy them for Christmas?
How about a brick that recognizes his or her contribution to the country and paves the path to the Guadalupe County Veteran’s Memorial?
Guadalupe County has recently reauthorized sale of the bricks for $50. Each brick carries the name and branch of service of the service member — Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard or Merchant Marine.
“It’s for any veteran, male or female, living or dead, and you don’t have to be from Guadalupe County,” said H.U. Wood American Legion Post 245 Chaplain Basil Karm. “We also have people who have moved away and whose family would like to have them remembered in their home county.”
The county’s Veteran’s Memorial prepared by Carter Memorials cost about $70,000, and was paid for in large part through the sale of 1,700 of the bricks, which now line the walkway to the memorial, located in front of the county courthouse, as well as through donations by CMC Steel-Texas, H-E-B, local banks and other benefactors.
And now, Karm said, more of the bricks are available, thanks to James Deatherage and Carter Memorials, which is donating the paving bricks and the engraving so that the entire $50 proceeds can be donated to Disabled American Veterans Chapter 61 in Seguin.
Disabled American Veterans Past Post 61 and past State Commander Doug Herrle said the help would be invaluable.
“We really do appreciate it, and we wish to extend a thank you to Mr. Karm and to Mr. Deatherage and Carter Memorials for their donations,” Herrle said.
Karm said Deatherage’s contribution was even more remarkable because Deatherage has never served in the military.
“His father-in-law was a Navy man, though,” Karm noted.
Deatherage said he decided to do it as a gesture of thanks for what this country’s veterans have done for the citizens they protect.
“To give a little back to those who have given so much is the right thing to do,” Deatherage said. “And right now, I’m able to do that.”
The bricks are laid out in a grid and numbered bricks are included so those who purchase the bricks know how to find them.
“A man in my church couldn’t find Audie Murphy’s brick, and I was able to tell him, look in row 11 on the left side,” Karm said.
The placement system is the work of volunteers Harold and Rainell Heiman, who have catalogued all of the bricks and set up the system for locating them.
“James had to haul the bricks down, and Harold and Rainell had to set them, and it took a lot of time,” Karm said. “Harold even invented a tool where you could take out a brick and put down a new one in its place.”
Anyone who wishes to purchase a veteran’s brick can do so by contacting Karm at 379-6709 or Deatherage at Carter Memorials, 303-4140.
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