JACKSON – A nonprofit organization that is working to complete a veterans memorial will look to find funding on the dance floor at its second annual dinner dance and gift auction.
From 7-11 p.m. Oct. 17, the Veterans Memorial Garden Inc. will take over the AMVETS Post 2, Toms River Road, Jackson, for an evening of food, music and fundraising.
“We hope people will come out and have fun while showing their support for our nation’s veterans,” said Jackson Township Councilman Ken Bressi, who is a Vietnam War veterans and the vice president of the veterans memorial Board of Directors.
Tickets will be $35 at the door and Bressi said 100 percent of the proceeds will go directly toward the completion of the Veterans Memorial Garden at the intersection of Jackson Mills Road and Commodore Boulevard.
Since 2008, municipal officials and local veterans have been working to complete a memorial that honors those who served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.
The Veterans Memorial Garden was unveiled at a Veterans Day ceremony in 2011. Since then, representatives of the Veterans Memorial Garden Inc. have unveiled various phases of the project as those phases were completed.
The memorial garden has a pentagonshaped seating area and personalized pavers that were purchased by people from around the nation. There are 14 granite benches which were donated to the memorial and flagpoles that fly the American flag, the POW flag, the New Jersey state flag and the Jackson Township flag. Flags of the nation’s military branches also fly at the memorial.
In 2013, officials unveiled a pond with a three-tiered waterfall. Granite benches were placed near the waterfall.
Bressi said work on the third and final section of the memorial — featuring a granite arch and five 21-foot-tall pillars — will begin in the coming months.
“We are … to have at least the first two pillars up by next spring,” he said.
The five pillars will represent the branches of the military and their height will represent a 21-gun salute. The third phase will require about 52 tons of granite and numerous man hours to complete.
For more information, visit www.jacksonvetsmemorial.com