"National Memorial of Military Ascent" Board Shares Stories, Increases Fundraising Efforts

NMMA 2024 Veterans Day Fundraiser

GRAFTON - The National Memorial of Military Ascent hosted a fundraiser to promote their mission of establishing a memorial in Grafton.

On Nov. 11, 2024, Veterans Day, community leaders gathered at Café Napoli in Clayton, Missouri, to learn more about the memorial and donate toward its construction. Veteran John Simmons, co-chair of NMMA and CEO of Simmons Hanly Conroy, shared his vision for the memorial and encouraged people to donate.

“Please remember, together, we’re not just building a memorial,” he said. “We’re creating a place where our grandchildren can learn about sacrifice, service and the power of unity, a place where we can understand how ordinary Americans can come together to accomplish extraordinary things.”

Simmons and his firm donated $2.5 million toward the project during the event. The memorial’s design includes 12 bronze statues, valued at $250,000 each. With Simmons’s donation, the memorial is a little over halfway to its goal.

Grafton Mayor Mike Morrow, NMMA president and a veteran himself, noted that Grafton’s population is 17% veterans, the largest percentage of veterans per capita for a town in the state of Illinois. He expressed his appreciation for Simmons’s donation and encouraged others to contribute.

“John is leading the way with this with his donation tonight, his firm’s donation, and now it’s up to the rest of us to carry this over the line,” Morrow said. “We are on track, if funding is complete, to have these statues installed in the fall of 2025. That’s next year, folks. We’re on track to start construction in June of this coming year. And we’re on track to have the entire dedication on 6/6/26.”

Dan Bechtold, NMMA board member and a Vietnam War veteran, noted that the memorial will hold a special position in Grafton. He said he is “one of the luckiest guys in the world” because he survived the war, and now, he hopes to see the memorial’s completion to honor those who did not survive.

“We’ve got a lot of people responding,” he said. “We’ve got all the veterans behind it. But I think we’ve got to go to the citizens and get them to back it, too. We need everybody. They weren’t there, but they had an uncle, grandfather, whatever. The whole community needs to kick in, and I think it’ll happen. It’s just down the road yet. And I want it to happen in my lifetime. I think it’ll be good for our little town.”

For more information about the National Memorial of Military Ascent, including how to donate, visit the official NMMA website at GraftonMemorial.org.

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