The celebration will be held alongside Friday Night Lights from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. on the south lawn of the Afton Civic Center. An invitation-only dinner for Wall That Heals participants is scheduled for 6:00 p.m., followed by a recognition program inside the Civic Center.
The public is invited to attend Friday Night Lights, which will include more than 20 vendors, live music and a 7:00 p.m. performance by Dangling Chains. Raffle drawings will also take place, and remaining Wall That Heals merchandise will be available for purchase.
“The Friday Night Lights, it’s open to everybody, the whole community,” co-chair Jay Conley said. “Come out, attend it, have a great time.”
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Once final expenses are paid and all proceeds are collected, Conley expects money will remain for a memorial fund established at the outset of the Wall That Heals project.
“The intent from the beginning has been to pay for memorials — new or upgrade — in the towns in the Valley,” Conley explained.
The money will be transferred to the local VFW, where Conley serves as commander, after the committee completes its accounting. Funds will be set aside in separate certificates of deposit for each municipality until communities develop plans for new or improved memorials.
When work begins, the VFW will pay contractors directly for the memorial projects.
“That money will always stay in control at the VFW,” Conley noted. “It is set aside for those towns, but it is for the memorials.”
Organizers are also considering a permanent, publicly accessible location in Afton for the section of the Wall That Heals presented to the community at the closing ceremony. Co-chair Lisa Grimsley said the display could include the flag presented during the ceremony, items left at the wall, wall rubbings and news coverage from the visit.
The Wall That Heals, a traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund exhibit, drew an estimated 10,000 visitors to Afton. While organizers are awaiting final figures, early participation totals point to an unusually strong response.
The Friday Night Lights candlelight event drew 705 attendees, a record for the traveling memorial program, organizers reported. More than 100 participants took part in the escort that brought the wall into town.
Grimsley and Conley said memorial staff also offered emphatic praise for the community’s organization, setting and hospitality.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund representative Tim Teets, who has visited more than 700 sites, was visibly emotional during the closing ceremony, Grimsley recalled. Teets told organizers the organization had only presented a section of the wall to host communities a handful of times over more than four decades.
“He said, ‘What did you do here?’” Grimsley recounted. “I said, ‘We live in the best part of the world with the best people.’”
Teets also praised Afton’s setting and indicated the organization would make an exception to its usual five-year return policy by coming back to Afton in four years, according to Grimsley.
“It’s always just really refreshing to hear the feedback — all positive feedback,” Grimsley reflected. “I think everybody in our community can take a lot of pride in what we accomplished here together.”
Organizers also thanked major sponsors Silver Star Communications, Alpine American Legion Post 46, Swan Valley American Legion, Guys Who Give and tourism boards throughout Star Valley.
