Burns to speak at dedication

Conrad Burns, a former U.S. Senator and Marine, will be the keynote speaker at the formal dedication of the Lincoln County Veterans Monument 6 p.m. Monday at Riverfront Park.

The Memorial Day dedication will begin with Libby High School student Galen Graziano singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Soon after, Pastor Philip Alspaw of Libby Christian Church will lead everyone in an invocation.

Kenny Mancuso, a board member for the Lincoln County Veterans Memorial Foundation Committee, is going to speak about the history of the foundation.  

“It is a forever monument,” Mancuso said. “It is for the veterans who served, the veterans serving now and those who are gonna come.”

The foundation was created about two years ago to raise money for a veterans monument in Libby. The group set a fundraising goal of $100,000 and sold hundreds of engraved bricks, each of them dedicated to a military service member, to help pay for the project.

Fellow board member, Terry Andreessen also plans to speak. Other guest speakers include, Lincoln County Commissioner Tony Berget and Senior Vice Commander Dean House of the Department of Montana Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The dedication will conclude with a performance of taps, the bugle call for lights out, by Libby High School students Nick Gier and Jonathan Miller.

The memorial’s centerpiece is a six-foot bronze statue which sits on five-sided granite slab commemorating each branch of the military. The monument, crafted by local artist Scott Lennard, portrays a World War II-era  veteran pulling a wounded, modern-day soldier to safety.  

Lennard created the original clay sculpture by working every day for three months. The statue was then finished in a foundry in Kalispell and erected at Riverfront Park in November.

Surrounding the monument are rows and rows of red bricks, engraved with names of veterans from Lincoln County and beyond. Larry Pitcher, a board member, said the bricks help the monument be a “living monument,” which will continue to grow.

The theme of the memorial is “we never leave anybody behind, and we never stop fighting,” Pitcher said.

Five granite benches also surround the monument. Donors names are engraved into four of the benches, with the fifth bench featuring names of Lincoln County veterans killed in action since World War I.

There will also be Memorial Day celebrations at Libby Cemetery, Troy Cemetery, Boyd Cemetery in the Yaak, and one at Milnor Lake Cemetery.