Lisa Grimsley and Jay Conley stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Monday, January 5 to promote the Vietnam Veterans Memorials Fund’s ‘The Wall That Heals’ which is coming to Afton this July. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Lisa at the Town of Afton at (307) 885-9831.

(0:00) And learning more about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s The Wall That Heals. It’s coming (0:05) to Afton this summer in studio. Live to tell us all about it, Lisa Grimsley and Jay Conley today.

(0:12) Lisa, Jay, good morning. How are you guys doing today? Good, good, you? (0:16) Good morning. Thanks for having us.

Well, on a day like today, I’m happy to be talking about (0:20) summertime activities. So I’m grateful for that. But this is such a cool thing that’s happening (0:26) in Afton and in the Star Valley area.

I’ve heard a little about it, but I’m stoked to get some more (0:31) details. Lisa, we’ll start with you. Tell us about this Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s The Wall (0:36) That Heals.

What is it? Well, it’s a great honor for our community to be hosting The Wall That (0:44) Heals this summer. It will be on display July 9th through the 12th. The date is determined, (0:52) the location, we’re still fleshing out.

So it will be in Afton the 9th through the 12th (0:59) of July. It is free, and it is open 24-7. And it’s kind of in conjunction with the 250th (1:07) event, of course, that’s being celebrated.

Jay, tell us more about what this actually (1:13) is. And I understand it’s like a traveling memorial, correct? (1:17) You bet. So it is a three-quarter size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Wall that’s at the National (1:23) Mall in Washington, D.C. This one is unique.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation (1:29) brings this wall around the country to people that can’t necessarily afford or don’t have (1:33) the opportunity to go to see the wall in Washington, D.C. So what an honor we have (1:38) to bring it here. Really a chance for healing, a chance to see hometown heroes, if you will, (1:45) a chance to see old buddies, their names on the wall and scratch their names off the wall. (1:50) Absolutely.

And you mentioned it’s a traveling wall. So how did Afton get picked? I mean, (1:56) how did we get on the stop schedule for this? So there’s an application process that happens, (2:03) and we had some forward-thinking members back in October think that we could pull this off. So we (2:10) put in an application out of 150 applications.

We were the 31 sites. So we’re number one of 31 (2:18) sites to be picked. Fantastic.

So this is happening in July, somewhere in Afton, exact location, (2:24) still to be determined. And Lisa, in order to make this thing click and make this thing go, (2:30) you’re really looking for a lot of community support, right? (2:33) We certainly are. We have several different committees that we have established.

We’re (2:39) looking for some committee chairs to help chair our Sponsorship and Fundraising Committee, (2:45) our Marketing Committee, and also the Logistics and Utilities Committee are the three that we’re (2:52) looking for right now. We’d ideally like to have two committee chairs on each of the committees. (2:58) We want to make this as successful as possible.

And then as we get closer to the event date, (3:06) we will be looking for upwards of 200 volunteers to help man shifts. So that’ll be available 24-7. (3:15) We’ll have our website up and operational at the end of this month, and you will be able to sign (3:21) up on Signup Genius through our website.

Our website will be Wyoming Welcomes the Wall that (3:28) Heals. Perfect. And so you can find that website shortly.

When it comes to being a committee chair, (3:35) what does that entail? What kind of commitment is someone making in order to do that? (3:40) Well, first off, this is going to be a very fun job with a lot of passionate people. So keep that (3:47) in mind. It will be a lot of work, but anything worthwhile is a lot of work.

So we’re in the (3:53) planning stages now. We want to have a great team of people with high-level skill sets that can work (4:00) well together, and kind of just the call to action. So it will be like a full-time job that (4:07) you’re not getting paid for.

But as you mentioned, very rewarding, and to see it all come together (4:13) and be part of this unique event, right? Well, what could be more rewarding than honoring (4:17) our Vietnam veterans and anybody, men and women, that have served our country? (4:22) We have a unique privilege in our country, and I can’t think of a prouder thing to have the honor (4:29) to host. Yeah. And so those are the committee chairs.

But you mentioned, when this thing really (4:34) gets clicking, you’re going to need upwards of 200 volunteers. And so even if you’re not able to (4:39) be involved up to that scale, I’m sure you’re willing to take everybody, whatever they’re (4:43) willing to do, right? Absolutely. We will not turn down a volunteer.

(4:49) So we will have volunteer training. We have a volunteer coordinator. But the day before the (4:57) wall opens, we will have training for all of our volunteers.

So you will be very well informed. (5:04) There’s a lot of different ways that people can get involved. This is your time, your money, (5:12) whatever that looks like.

We’re happy to accommodate whatever is necessary, whatever (5:18) you’re willing to give. It costs a lot of money to get this wall to come here. It is coming to us (5:24) from Billings, Montana.

And when it leaves here, it will be going to Manning, Iowa. There will be (5:29) 31 sites in the U.S. and starting in Hawaii this year in January. So it’s a huge commitment.

And (5:42) we’re trying to cast a huge net. We’re going to be getting a lot of visitors coming to Star Valley, (5:48) not just Afton, but Star Valley. And we just need to have a lot of participation (5:55) within our community to help pull that off.

It’s a very prideful moment for all of us to have this. (6:01) Yeah. You know, and I was going to ask you both that question, because it’s not like this is (6:05) making stops in Idaho Falls and Jackson and then working its way to Evanston.

I mean, we’re kind (6:10) of it in this region, right? And so I wanted to have you speak to what you did just a little more (6:18) on the regional draw for this. And then Jay, I want to have you touch more on just how incredible (6:24) it is to have it come here and have this be on the stop. So maybe Lisa, expound more on that and what (6:30) you’re hoping to see with the draw and how the community can help make it a success, not just (6:34) locally, but regionally.

Well, we’re hoping we can get a lot of people to come and visit the wall. (6:39) We just recently completed our training on the 15th of December with all of the 31 sites (6:46) and the people from Washington, D.C. that conducted the training. And so it’s been a (6:52) giant learning curve on the rules and what to expect when you’re hosting the wall.

(6:58) So now that we’re up to speed on all of that, we can be a resource, Jay and myself, for the (7:05) community and anybody that is willing to volunteer or get involved in whatever capacity. So we are (7:14) hoping that we are going to be drawing people from larger communities such as Salt Lake, Boise, (7:20) hopefully Denver, Idaho Falls, you know, to get tour buses to come in. They say on average, (7:27) a visitor spends about 30 minutes at the wall.

And it’s open 24 hours a day, so whatever works (7:36) for your schedule. We have different ceremonies that will be available throughout the days. We (7:43) do certain tours.

We have a Light the Night to honor PTSD and Agent Orange. So there’s going to (7:55) be a lot going on in a short amount of time. And 200 volunteers is the bare minimum that we will (8:01) need.

And if we’re doing our job correctly in advertising and marketing this, and we can have (8:07) a draw from all these larger communities and bring in, you know, thousands and thousands of (8:14) people, we’ll need a lot of volunteers to help people that are coming to the wall to, you know, (8:20) do a name rubbing or answer any questions. This is the only wall that has a mobile education center (8:29) and it comes with three of their staff people. Otherwise, it’s all of us volunteers.

So this is a (8:36) great opportunity for our community to come together and be tethered by a very unique experience. (8:43) It’s never been in Western Wyoming. So we all get to own this and be happy to have it here.

(8:50) Yeah, fantastic. And Jay, I’ll let you kind of maybe drive that point home a little more on (8:55) just how incredible it is to be on this route and on the schedule. Because like I said, it’s (9:00) not just making a path.

I mean, it’s really coming to this location specifically. (9:05) Yeah, I think that that’s a wonderful thing for Western Wyoming. It has been to Wyoming (9:11) a couple of times, but it’s been, you know, generations ago.

And so for us to be able to (9:16) bring it to Western Wyoming, I think is just an honor above almost anything else. I think that (9:23) to be able to bring this here to give Vietnam veterans and their family members (9:29) a moment to heal a moment to receive a hero’s welcome home. I think that’s the big thing for (9:38) me is that, you know, as a combat vet myself and getting a hero’s welcome.

You know, I was (9:45) challenged at a young age to remember all Vietnam veterans. They are heroes, and we want to make (9:52) sure that they’re welcomed home as heroes. Well said that’s happening in July, the (9:57) Vietnam Veterans Memorial Funds, the wall that heals happening coming to Afton and Star Valley (10:02) this July.

Lisa again, if people want to get involved, how do they do that? Who do they (10:06) contact? At this time, they’re welcome to call the Afton Town Hall at 307-885-9831. And they (10:15) can ask for Lisa and I would be happy to take their information towards the end of the month (10:20) when our website is available and operational, they can use that as a resource as well. And (10:27) that will be Wyoming welcomes the wall that heals.

So the wall that heals is the initials (10:37) of TWTH. TWTH, right? Yeah, yeah. Well, that’s again, Lisa Grimsley and Jay Conley in studio (10:44) this morning, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Funds, the wall that heals if you’d like to be involved (10:48) again, they’re looking for those volunteers to step forward and and assist and help make this (10:53) all happen.

Contact Lisa at the Afton Town Hall for more details. Anything we missed that you (10:58) guys would like to mention today? I think the most important thing is that we make sure that (11:03) we keep that name right no matter what we talk about the wall that heals is presented by the (11:07) Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation. And our committee that we have named is Wyoming welcomes (11:13) the wall that heals.

Those are the two names that we use and going forward. That’ll be our (11:19) brand as well. Excellent.

It’s all part of the weekday wake up this morning on SBI radio.