A local car club is the first one off the line in the race to raise funds for the expansion of the Veterans Wall of Honor.
The project's unofficial kickoff happened on Nov. 12 when members of the Northwest Arkansas Camaro Club presented a check to the Veterans Council of Northwest Arkansas in the amount of $2,100.
Veterans Council President Emeritus Ray Brust said the check represents the start of a process that will increase space at the wall on which veterans can be honored by their families.
"We get the question all the time, 'When can I get my loved one's name on here?'" he said. "And so, we've been pursuing this over about the last four years. What this means is that now we'll be able to continue to memorialize, to continue our mission, which is to remember those veterans."
The wall was built in 2014 and all the space available for names was filled that same year.
"We're here to memorialize veterans. That's what our organization does," said Brust. "But since 2014 we haven't been able to put any more names on it. And there are about 16,000 veterans in Benton County."
Roger Armstrong, who serves as the council's president, commended the car club for leading the way in the campaign to raise funds for the wall's expansion.
"I think what this gift means is that we are about to launch a community-based fundraising effort and this club is a pioneer in that effort," he said. "We're going to ask the community to step up just as they did in 2004 to build this monument."
He continued, "I think what's going to happen is that the community is going to see what this club has done and follow suit."
The Veterans Wall of Honor holds special meaning to Winona Brackeen, who is the president of the Northwest Arkansas Camaro Club.
"I wanted to be a part of this to honor my sons, my father, my husband and my family members who have actually served," said Brackeen, whose husband died active duty seven years ago.
She also said the wall "was very near and dear to my father's heart because he was commander of the American Legion for a couple of years while my husband and son were deployed. We made sure we all got bricks here. It's a great place to walk around and memorialize your loved ones. It will be here a long time."
Brackeen said the money presented to the council was raised during a recent club event.
"Every year we have a big cruise," she said. "We invite other Camaro clubs to come join us and raise money for a chosen charity and this year we chose the Veterans Wall of Honor expansion.
The cruise was held Oct. 9. It started at Allen's Grocery before moving over to the wall.
"We invited people to come over and see what they were supporting," Brackeen said. "We collected donations and $874 in cash and handed it to the Veterans Council. The rest of the money we collected in the meantime is what we gave them in a check for $2,100."
Brust said the memorial serves as a reminder of the stories lived out by those whose names appear on the wall.
"This current wall has about 4,850 names on it," he said. "That's 4,850 different stories and different families we need to remember so it just doesn't evaporate. We're living in a world where most of us don't even remember things from back during war times and what people gave up of themselves and what kind of suffering they had in their families. We need to remember that and understand that when we memorialize, we are remembering."