Fund Raising For Memorial Modest So Far Veterans Day Dedication Called Unlikely

Organizers of a $700,000 World War II veterans memorial said Monday they don’t expect to raise enough money in time to dedicate the project on Veterans Day.

“It’s not impossible, but I think it’s an unrealistic expectation to say that Nov. 11 is the date,” state Veterans Affairs Director John King told members of the committee planning the project.

About $150,000 has been raised, and state lawmakers are expected to provide another $200,000 in this year’s budget before the legislative session ends Thursday.

That still would leave organizers just at the halfway mark. At its next meeting May 4, the committee should be able to nail down a revised date for the project’s completion, King said.

News of financial delays came on the heels of a public-relations gaffe - one also related to fund raising - and committee members quickly tried to minimize the damage.

“Boeing is not the bad empire that has been playing in the papers,” King said.

Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, said last week he was upset that big companies such as Boeing that manufactured military armaments during World War II are not chipping in to build the memorial.

But Benton did not know that Boeing, which had turned down the fund-raising committee’s request for $25,000, had planned to make an indirect donation by commissioning an artist to paint a picture of a B-17 Flying Fortress and by underwriting the cost of producing 1,500 lithographs.

The lithographs were to be sold to raise money for the memorial.

Benton’s remarks led Boeing to withhold a check for $9,318 that Graham, Wash., artist Bob Rosenburgh was hoping to use for the B-17 picture and lithographs.

“The check is still on hold,” company spokesman Peter Conte said Monday. “We’re still trying to reach a resolution.”

The memorial committee authorized a $1,000 payment Monday to allow Rosenburgh to continue his work.

Benton said he was “pleasantly surprised” to learn of Boeing’s involvement through a newspaper article. The committee will try to cultivate corporate donors - including Boeing - by stressing the project’s educational value, he said.