Scout's project: A Purple Heart memorial

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Scout's project: A Purple Heart memorial

 

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060630/COMMUNITIES30/606300323

http://tinyurl.com/nd4p8

 

06/30/06 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom

 

Student, 16, gets the OK to build monument at Montville High School

 

BY TEHANI SCHNEIDER

DAILY RECORD

 

MONTVILLE -- At a time when young Americans are going off to fight in a war, Boy Scout Justin Pagano wanted to create a monument that would remind people his age about the high price of freedom.

 

"To place this monument where every Montville High School student can see it is appropriate, because we are at an age when we can begin to comprehend freedom and the cost of war," Justin wrote in a letter to the school board before his project was approved.

 

Sixteen-year-old Justin will create a Purple Heart memorial that will be placed on the grounds of Montville High School. The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the armed forces who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action.

 

Justin, of Troop 74, said he hopes the monument will honor and recognize military sacrifices while demonstrating an appreciation and respect for its surroundings in the community.

 

"I want people to see it and want to park, and read everything the monument says, so they can fully understand what it represents," Justin said Tuesday.

 

"I want them to realize the cost of our freedom."

 

Justin recently received approval for his project from the school board. He worked with Joseph Hems, vice president of the Purple Heart Service Foundation and past national commander for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, to pinpoint the perfect spot for the monument.

 

Hems said his organization usually is involved with the location of monuments of this type. Approximately 25 are in place in New Jersey, and the organization hopes to have 30 by the end of the year, Hems said.

 

"We're always looking for a location with good visibility, particularly for the younger generation," Hems said.

 

Together the two agreed on the small hill that separates the high school from the library on Horseneck Road. The memorial will be on an angle facing the corner where drivers turn into the school, Justin said.

 

Justin is working to raise funds for the memorial, which is estimated to cost $7,000 for the monument, base and inscription, Hems said. Justin's goal is to raise enough money to add other inscriptions and symbols.

 

"I hope to put on the back of the monument something that represents the Boy Scouts,"Justin said. His fundraising efforts will begin on Saturday afternoon at a carnival at the high school.

 

John Coppola, scoutmaster of Troop 74, said Justin's project mirrors his patriotic nature and his sense of values.

 

"I think this project reflects Justin and his family -- what they feel about people who have sacrificed for this country," said Coppola.

 

Justin's father, Dan, said his son picked a very difficult project because of the amount of money that must be raised. But the experience will be invaluable, he said.

 

"It gives him a better understanding of how fortunate he is -- that someone had to put themselves in harm's way and make the sacrifice so we can live here," Dan Pagano said.

 

"He's getting a very good understanding of what that means."