A new vision coming to Heritage Park

BY BONNIE KAY BALDWIN
LAKE MILLS GRAPHIC
Dawn (Torkelson) Arispe and her husband, Doug, are caretakers at Heritage Park, Forest City.
A native of Forest City, Dawn has been an active member of the Winnebago County Historical Society, since 2014. The spark for her new vision began about a year and a half ago.
“I got in at the tail end of the preparation for Operation LZ. Although I wasn’t thoroughly involved in Operation LZ (I didn’t live out here at the time), I actually saw the attendance, and saw the emotions that went along with that, and saw how the Vets really wanted to have the event. What a great, great thing that was,” said Dawn.
Shortly after that, Dawn and Riley Lewis, one of the founders of Operation LZ, talked numerous times about about the possibility of updating the military museum, presently on the grounds of Heritage Park,  adding Vietnam era items and just playing with the idea.
When the caretaker position opened up, Dawn could see her vision come to life, so she really began to focus on it.
“Doug and I would go and visit different museums. We spent a week out in Arizona, travelled all over, comparing some ideas—not just military museums—we’d check out their quality, wondering what can we do that will really bring the excitement to this? We started to do some pricing and budgeting and then it was, where would we put something like that? As it came out in the last year and a half, we’ve aquired different types of collections. I finally said, you know those three old buildings (to the south of the caretakers’ house on the grounds), they’re old POW barracks that came from Algona. Why don’t we at least turn half of that building, into a newer, updated museum and bring in some fresh stuff. See if these individuals I’ve talked to, see if they are willing to donate some items. Then some said, ‘I’ve got this’ . . . and ‘I’ve got this’ . . . and ‘I would love to be a part of this.’  Now, it’s going to take one of our entire buildings.”
Dawn continued saying, that she had to get her ducks in a row. She needed to get other people involved. and then she asked herself, if there was a need for all that. As soon as she asked the question, she knew the answer. Yes, there is a need.
“One of the things that was brought to me was, there’s no WWI veterans living anymore, there’s very few WWII veterans, and we are losing our Vietnam vets right and left. If we are going to do something, we need these veterans to know, active in a war or not, they need to know that no matter how they served, we appreciate their service.”
A dozen interested people came to the first meeting in the old POW barracks, Tuesday, Sept. 10. Dawn led the meeting, explaining roughly how the idea was going to work and if they had any ideas, she would welcome their input. Now, that she had some volunteers who got behind her vision, she decided she would open up the idea to the public.
 The next meeting is slated for Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 5:30 p.m. and it will be held in the future military museum. Dawn will explain how the building will be designed and what volunteers she will need. She will welcome anyone interested in helping; veteran or not.
She has enlisted the help of Veronica Maas—an Army veteran herself—who is knowledgeable about Heritage Park, to lead this vision. They are working on a name for this venture, completing grant writing, budgeting and pricing, etc. But, they are asking for as many volunteers as they can get, to help and support the cause.
“The goal is to have a place where everyone can come and learn the history of what our military has sacrificed for us, and why we have these freedoms that we have got. We are the only country in the world that has these freedoms.”
The museum will not only be a place where the public can see displays, they are going to hear about the displays as well, through an audio system.
“They will hear the stories, they will hear live interviews. They will hear the music—and I stress music, because when you think of our generation, we think of Vietnam and the music involved with it; it told stories. And these generations to come, need to know what that music did for the soldiers, what it did for the people back home, what the messages were, and when they leave, they will feel the emotions involved in every piece that is in there. And that’s where it comes from, when people are giving these donations, it’s great-grandpa’s, great-great grandpa’s, it’s my dad’s, my brother’s, my sister’s, my aunt’s, and there is always a story to be told.”
Dawn said that a highly anticipated part of this museum, will be a section ‘basically designated for women in the military,’ and each section of the museum will be broken down by eras, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War and War in Afghanistan to present day. There will be a volunteer leader for every era.
“There will be six phases, and we  are at Phase 1,” said Dawn. “Getting everything organized and getting the budget in detail. The first major step is getting the building temperature-controlled. This is a must that it be in before the end of November.  Then during the winter,  the contractors will be putting up display cabinets—getting all the cabinets built—then in spring, we’ll be able to paint and set up the displays.”
The ultimate goal is to have the new military museum completed, celebrating an opening Sept. 11, 2020.
For more information, to make suggestions or to volunteer, attend the meeting Tuesday, Oct. 8, or give Dawn a call, 641-596-0527.

Lake Mills Graphic

204 N. Mill Street
Lake Mills, IA 50450

Office Number: (641) 592-4222
Fax Number: (641) 592-6397

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