Jay Conley and Lisa Grimsley, Co-Chairs of Wyoming Welcomes The Wall, stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Tuesday, August 11 to recap the visit from the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Wall That Heals, to Afton in July and promote the upcoming Appreciation Party on August 21 at the Afton Civic Center.

(0:00) After party co-chairs of the Wall That Heals committee that made the whole thing happen, (0:05) Lisa Grimsley and Jay Conley in studio. Lisa, Jay, have you guys had a chance to (0:10) take a nap, catch your breath since the Wall That Heals came through town? (0:13) A little bit. Every day we’re reminded of what a fantastic community and the members of our (0:20) community that have really helped pull together.

And so it’s always just really refreshing to hear (0:26) the feedback and all positive feedback. And so super prideful for both Jay and I, (0:32) but I think everybody in our community can take a lot of pride in what we accomplished here (0:38) together. And actually the whole Western part of the state and the state of Wyoming.

We had a lot (0:44) of volunteers that came and stayed for the week and they came from Lander and the center of the (0:52) state and the Eastern parts of the state. So just very rewarding experience all the way around. (0:58) You know, I said this after the wall had packed up and left.

Just as an observer from outside that (1:05) was a participant, I could not think of anything that could have made it better. (1:11) And from the escort to the way that was handled with the setup to the light the night ceremony (1:18) to the heroes week. I mean the whole thing you guys and the committee of volunteers that helped (1:25) you.

I just tip my hat because it was really, really special for everybody. And I couldn’t (1:31) think of one thing that could have made the whole thing better. So absolutely tip your hats to you.

(1:35) And it sounds like not only encouraging feedback from the community, but for the actual memorial (1:41) staff themselves, right? Had some great things to say about their experience. (1:45) Absolutely. I think that again, props to Lisa who behind the scenes and in the scenes (1:53) has done so much with the planning and the vision and everything like that.

And then (1:58) going to the committee chairs and being able to implement this plan that we had from training (2:03) from the VVMF. Just a wonderful opportunity. I think that the committee stepped up.

We talked (2:09) about cream rising to the top and we got that with our committee. So to be able to put this (2:16) together and to impress the VVMF the way that we did. There’s some things that I’ll talk about here (2:22) in just a little bit that were evidence of that.

And as well when we were training last November (2:31) and December, there were committees from the year prior that were part of that training. And (2:37) we’re excited to be a part of that training the next towns next year as well. (2:42) Absolutely.

Absolutely. Well, let’s talk about how things went. Give us maybe just a recap on (2:47) some of the participation and general numbers and some things like that that you guys have.

(2:54) Well, I think that right now they’re unofficial numbers. We’re still waiting for reportables back (2:58) from VVMF and they’re extremely busy. They’re in White Bear Township or actually just left (3:04) White Bear Township, Minnesota last week.

So they’re busy. They’ll get back to us here in the (3:08) next few weeks and we’ll be able to give you absolute definite reportables. But the numbers (3:12) that we have are amazing.

We were told to buy 200 candles for the Light the Nights event. (3:21) We bought 300 because we thought we were going to kill the 200 number and absolutely we didn’t (3:26) even buy half of what we needed. That number of 705 attendees for that Friday Night Lights is a (3:31) record for the VVMF.

So we shattered that record, which was amazing. I think that also the escort, (3:40) we had over 100 participants in that, which is a pretty big number for them as well. I’ve seen (3:45) some of the other escorts that came into town and some of them only had 10, 20 of them.

So (3:51) I’m really, really proud of the community for stepping up to that. Also, I think the big thing (3:56) is 10,000 visitors to the site. And that was a positive impact that we had of healing.

And you (4:04) know those folks went home and talked to two, three, four, five more people. So really I can (4:08) say that we had an impact, a positive healing impact on 10 to 30,000 people. That’s incredible.

(4:14) That’s incredible. And I mean, you talk about kind of the fanfare that surrounds this type (4:21) of memorial when it comes, but on an individual level, the healing, right? And that’s got to be (4:28) what was the most impactful, right? Yeah, that’s definitely the takeaway. (4:34) When we were doing our closing ceremony on Sunday, July 12th, Tim Teets with the VVMF, (4:42) who’s gone to over 700 sites, was visibly shaken and very emotional.

And he said, (4:51) it’s the first time in, you’ll have to remind me, in 42 years, they’ve only done this one time, (5:00) or four times in 42 years, and given a section of the wall away. We were lucky enough to receive (5:07) that. And everything, when we got done, Tim came over to JNI and said, what did you do here? (5:16) And I said, we live in the best part of the world with the best people.

And everybody rallied for (5:24) the occasion. There wasn’t, this far exceeded our expectations. We had goals and pretty (5:32) hefty goals.

And we’re hopeful that we would attain something even close to that. But (5:40) for them to have been doing this for 40 years and come up to us and say, Afton rocked it. (5:47) And his exact words, and I want to definitely share this, and I’m probably not going to capture (5:51) this in the way I, he meant it.

He said, you know what’s wrong with Afton? And immediately, (5:57) you’re kind of like on guard, you know, like absolutely nothing is wrong with Afton. (6:04) And he said, you all asked the same question. And he goes, why Afton? Why did you choose to (6:13) come to Afton? He goes, look around.

He goes, what do you guys don’t have any confidence or (6:18) in yourselves? He goes, this is a beautiful setting. And we’ve never had something so (6:22) perfect like this before. So, the other thing that he did say to us is we never come back to (6:29) another community within five years.

He goes, we would come back to Afton. We will make an exception. (6:34) We will come back in four.

So, the feedback that we got from them immediately after the closing (6:42) was phenomenal and entirely positive. And Jay and I have really strived to want to extend that (6:48) message to our community and everybody that participated, which leads us into our after (6:54) party. We are required by contract to have an after party and recognize our sponsors and (7:01) volunteers and those that contributed to the success of the wall coming.

So, that party is (7:07) going to be on August 21st, which is a Friday. It’ll begin at four o’clock. It’s part of Friday (7:15) Night Lights.

So, we have live music where you are going to have food. Our participants, (7:21) we will give them a certificate for dinner and then we will have our recognition party in the (7:29) Civic Center. And then Friday Night Lights is always from four until eight.

So, and then we’ll (7:35) do our raffle. We’ll raffle off our raffle items, which we still have tickets. We have four (7:44) different things that we are raffling off.

And then we have some other swag items that are left (7:49) over. So, we will be selling those. And then once that is done, then we will migrate over to moving (7:58) that money into the memorial funds like we had promised to do initially.

So, Jay can speak a (8:04) bit more intelligently on that topic. So, to kind of give a little future forecast of what we hope (8:11) to accomplish. So, with the appreciation party, just to clarify.

So, the Friday Night Lights, (8:16) it’s open to everybody, the whole community. Come out, attend it, have a great time. But the (8:22) dinner is invitation only.

Is that correct? Yes, correct. The raffle ticket sales and swag (8:31) is what’s paying for dinner. So, anybody that participated will get a wristband.

And then they (8:38) can go to one of the food trucks and we will get, so we’ll essentially pay for the food. And then (8:44) they’ll come into the Civic Center if you have a wristband and then we’ll do our ceremony. So, (8:49) it’s RSVP.

But definitely Friday Night Lights is open to anybody. We have a lot of vendors. They (8:54) have 20 plus vendors.

And we have dangling chains that’ll be starting at seven o’clock. So, the more (9:00) the merrier, man. We’ll keep this party rolling.

Love it. All right. So, perfect.

So, that’s coming (9:05) up and on the way. So, Jay, let’s talk about the memorial fund that’s going to be created with any (9:10) leftover funds. Tell us more about this.

Absolutely. I just want to be very clear that (9:14) there will be money left over. And the intent from the beginning has been to pay for memorials (9:20) new or upgrade in the towns in the Valley.

Part of that clarity is that Lisa and I have been in (9:29) control of this money the entire time. Once all the events are done and we collect everything (9:35) and tabulate everything, then that money will be forwarded over to our local VFW who I am the (9:42) commander of. And we have already had a quorum at the VFW for that money.

That money will be (9:48) set aside and put into a CD for each municipality. And we’ll continue to do that yearly until the (9:55) municipalities have a plan. Once that plan is set in stone and the work begins, then we will (10:02) disperse that money to the contractors that are doing that work.

So, I just want to be clear again (10:06) that that money will always stay in control at the VFW. And it is set aside for those towns, (10:12) but it is for the memorials. And we will pay the contractors for the work for those memorials.

(10:17) So, each town could have their own separate project then it sounds like. (10:20) Absolutely. That’s our hope and that’s our wish.

Yes. (10:23) Excellent. So, Lisa mentioned the panel that was donated by the wall.

(10:28) What happens to that panel? Is that still being determined or where does that go? (10:34) Yes, it is being determined. I’m working with a couple of different people. I would like that to (10:39) be placed in an area in Afton somewhere where it can be viewed all year long by as many people (10:47) as possible.

That panel will also include the flag that was presented at the end for the (10:53) closing ceremony, all the items that were left behind that we’d like to highlight on that, and (10:58) some of the wall rubbings and those kind of things that we would like to, some of the newspaper (11:03) articles, we would like to have a great big wall that people could look at that. And we’re actually (11:09) looking forward greatly to putting that together. Fantastic.

Love it. So, again, in the studio, (11:13) Lisa Grimsley and Jay Conley, co-chairs of the Wall That Heals and just recapping everything. So, (11:19) Lisa, remind us the date and time of the appreciation party and the Friday Night Lights.

(11:24) It is Friday, August 21st at the Afton Civic Center and Friday Night Lights will be in the (11:31) lawn there right next on the south side of the Civic Center. It goes from four until eight and (11:37) dinner will be at six o’clock with our appreciation party. We hope to see everybody there.

Everybody (11:43) should want to take part of this. It’s a wonderful community event and a nice wrap up. So, (11:51) thank you to everybody and also a huge thank you to our sponsors.

We had some very significant (11:56) sponsors and I don’t want to forget them. That’s Silver Star Communications, the Alpine Legion, (12:02) Post 46, the Swan Valley American Legion, and Guys Who Give. Absolutely.

Took a whole community. (12:12) Absolutely. Again, in studio this morning, wrapping up the Wall That Heals, (12:15) Lisa Grimsley and Jay Conley, anything we missed? (12:18) I also want to have a shout out to our very generous tourism boards throughout the valley.

(12:25) This is another one of those things. I’m the tourism director for the town of Afton (12:30) and we are held by state statutes for our lodging tax money and for our community to all come (12:40) together and our tourism boards to help support this was fantastic and very much so one-off (12:49) and a very unique experience. So, a big shout out to them for choosing to support the Wall That Heals.

(12:56) Well, again, I tip my hat to you two and everyone who made this happen. (13:02) Incredible experience from start to end. So, thank you so much for all the work.

(13:06) That again is Lisa Grimsley and Jay Conley this morning. It’s all part of the weekday wake up. (13:10) On the SBI Radio Network.