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Congress OKs silver coins to raise funds for disabled veterans memorial
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An artist’s rendering of the planned memorial honoring disabled veterans features a star-shaped reflecting pool. Congress has approved legislation requiring the U.S. Mint to issue 350,000 silver coins to raise money for the memorial. – Courtesy photo
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Congress has approved legislation requiring the U.S. Mint to issue 350,000 silver coins to raise money for a memorial near the U.S. Capitol honoring disabled veterans.
Across Independence Avenue from the U.S. Botanic Garden are two acres dedicated to the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial, but raising the $86 million for design, construction, maintenance and outreach has been a campaign for supporters. A $3 million pledge from H. Ross Perot earlier this year put the total collected near $70 million.
The House and Senate recently pitched in by authorizing the minting of 350,000 $1 coins, which will be sold with a $10 surcharge. The proceeds of the surcharge will be paid directly to the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation.
“I wouldn’t say it was a struggle, as much as it is that no one gets up in the morning thinking how they can support a memorial,” said Victor Biggs, the foundation’s executive director. “It’s taken more time to educate 8 million Americans.”
The foundation was incorporated in 1998, but fundraising did not begin in earnest until 2002, Biggs said. The war in Iraq and large numbers of injured warriors have “certainly helped to increase interest in the project,” he said.
The memorial will honor 3 million veterans currently living with a disability as a result of their military service. The design, approved by the Commission of Fine Arts in 2004, features a star-shaped reflecting pool, an everlasting flame and grove of trees.
The memorial is designed “not just to show all of the veterans how much we care about them and honor them but also to remind future Congresses that freedom is not free, that a price is very high when the president calls on our armed forces to deliver, and when they do, we honor them and will always remember their memory,” Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, R-Ill., said recently on the House floor.
The coins will be issued in 2010, weigh 26.73 grams, be 1.5 inches in diameter and contain 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper.
For more information, visit avdlm.org.
mneibauer@dcexaminer.com
