July 11, 2025 • 23 mins
Roger Granboise talks about Davenport Memorial Park and how you can help the Brick Project.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have Roger grand Boys on the phone today talking
about Veterans Memorial Park, which there are four parks right
along the Mississippi River. This is probably one of the
newer ones looking for a landmark. It's the three flagpoles
that really kind of distinguishes it from maybe some of
the other parks. And Roger this particular park is it's
(00:23):
been an interesting little path its life has It's not
been a straight line, but it's been a line that
is consistently the arrow is pointing up towards what's being accomplished.
And when we talk about a city park, this, yeah,
is getting help from the city, but a lot of this.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Finds of Veterans Memorial Park FOVMP dot org. And yeah,
we actually are a team of former veterans, or not former,
we are veterans. Our mission basically is simple that we
want to do as much as we can to promote
the park, enhanced the items that are that are available
(01:03):
to see at the park. You had mentioned the three poles,
the flag poles. There's a whole lot more now than
just the flagpoles that were actually placed, I believe in
twenty eleven when we dedicated the park, very early on.
Now there's a forty foot mural that was created by
one of our Davenport residents. It's at the park. We
(01:24):
have flags for all of the service branches, including Space Force.
We have a bugler who now is fully functional and
lit at night and plays three times a day toots
his horn, and we are now in competition with the
Rock Island Marshal Roger.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I like it because if you're a bugler, at some
point you have to toot your own horn.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
You have to toot your own horn. Absolute. This is
not a live person. It actually is one step above
the battery operated horns that a lot of the VET
group to use at memorial services or funerals. And it's
not to take away from that importance. It's just that
this is a This is a bronze statue sits upon
(02:11):
a platform that three times a day he is programmed
to toot his horn. In the morning at seven o'clock
he'll play REVEE. Then at noon he'll play the national anthem,
and at nine o'clock in the evening he'll play REVEE.
And then there's also along with those three, there's a
way for us to activate an automated program that we
(02:35):
can at any time, press a button and they'll play
a medley of the service branch's anthems and some other
little ditties. But it last about fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
For people that are just at the park at any
one of those times, maybe if they tied it out
or not. What a awe inspiring thing. What just has
chills in the back of my spine just thinking about
being the when the bugler starts.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, you're exactly right. You know, you're standing up there
at seven o'clock in the morning or nine o'clock in
the evening and you start hearing that it's going to
be a little spine tangling.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Well and again going back to the bugler and having
the statue that all costs money.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, the bugler alone is a five thousand dollars item.
And we've got three more bronze statues that are going
to be placed in the very near future. I won't
go into detail, but they're five thousand to eight thousand dollars.
Also because one of them is a dual statue. It's
a soldier carrying a wounded soldier.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So and again, and that's where you're and you're trying
to make sure that you your organization can help make
that work and keep itself sustaining. Because we're talking about
the different phases that this park has gone through, and
we're kind of, I don't know where we're at now.
We phase one into phase two.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Say Phase one, I would say is the two thousand
and eleven up until twenty twenty two. In twenty twenty two,
I believe, we started Phase two, which is the mural,
the Bugler and all that the flags and all the
plaques that identify the branches of the service and also
(04:19):
different conflicts or wars that America is involved in. So
that's Stats two, and we had a ribbon cutting ceremony
on November two, I believe, I think it was twenty
twenty three that we had the ribbon cutting ceremony and
it went very very well. So now we're into Phase three,
which involves our big project, and that's called a commemorative
(04:41):
memorial brick project.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Tell us about that whole what we're going to be
able to see when it's fully completed down there.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
At the park. Okay, so the commemorative brick part is
actually a project that was kind of dreamed of at
the ribbon cutting ceremony in twenty twenty three, and it's
actually was brought to our attention by mister Lyle Peterson
who was a member of our committee and he was
basically in charge of getting donations, you know, going to
(05:08):
companies and help raise funds. So Lyle has since passed
away rights his soul, but he started a really good project,
got us all involved. And so basically what the bricks
are is you buy a four by eight inch paper brick,
could be a red paper brick. They're not going to
go on the ground there. We are building two A
(05:31):
frames to handle the bricks that we've got so far.
So far we've got one A frame bricks sold for
one of the A frames. We're working on the second
one now. So each A frame holds two hundred and
eighty eight bricks. So if we have to in the
future expand that we will, but right now we're sticking
with the two. So basically, through a donation of one
(05:54):
hundred dollars, you can purchase a brick. It doesn't have
to be from for a deceased service member, just anybody
who served in the any branch of the Armed Forces,
including Merchant Marines, Coastguard, Space Force as well. We don't
have any bricks from Space Force yet.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well that's relatively new, but eventually we'll see some more
people want to chime in on that for sure. But
what do you have.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
We have two bricks. They are from brothers from the
Civil War. They both served in the I think it
was twenty second Iowa Infantry and they actually fought that
the Battle of Vicksburg. One of them died at the
Battle of Vicksburg. And so we have two Civil War
veterans bricks on there. We have World War One veterans,
(06:38):
we have World War II Korea, Vietnam, and Afghan and
Iraq conflicts. So we covered it all. In fact, one
of our veterans that we actually the Friends Group paid
for his brick was a World War Two decorated veteran.
He was a Marine veteran just turned one hundred years old.
(07:01):
We had a party for him one hundred years of
life and also his service in World War II at Okinawa.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And I would gather too, Roger, that even if by
chance you were serving and it was peacetime, the bricks still,
whatever the case, gets your brick up there so that
family and friends and even the vet themselves can go
out there and look and look what I did. Everybody
kind of coming together. We had brought this phrase up
a lot of times in the past with any of
(07:32):
the interviews that we have on the Quad City Forum
where it takes a village in this particular case, it
takes the military to raise a village sometimes and we.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Can have a yeah, there we go.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That's what we'll kind of accustomize this for. Since we
have a finite space there, better hurry because if you
want to be a part of one of those two
A frames, you've only got just a few bricks left
before they complete the second A frame exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
The A frames are actually being built by the students
at Davenport West High School and their instructor and he's
in and he's Zen. Also has an uncle that was
a Vietnam Kia and his brick is also on the wall.
If they're being built right now, and they should be
within the next month or two placed at the park,
(08:22):
they're going to be behind the Bugler statue, and like
I said, there'll be two A frames and there will
also be a compass on the ground between the two
A frames. The compass is going to have if you
know what the praying soldier looks like you'll see him
kneeling down with the rifle and then the boots on
(08:42):
top of the rifle and a helmet. Then that will
be in the between the two A frames. Needed a
It sounds silly, but we needed a compass right there
because when you're down there standing in that part of
the river, the river actually runs east and west and
not north and south like most people think the Mississippi runs.
(09:05):
So we needed a compass to identify the directions because
on a locator service that I built, it actually will
identify the two different A frames as the South A
frame and the North A frame, which the South will
be closest to the river, in the north closest to
the city. So people will actually be able to identify
(09:29):
the A frames just by the compass, you know which
one we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And this brings up another point here when you talk
about the locator and even though we'll probably with the interview,
I don't want to stumble you. I don't want to
hold this up here, but there is a way for
people if they want to find certain bricks. Isn't there
a locator set up at the website that you designed?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
There there is. It's on it's available from the link
from a link on the actual application for a brick
put the donor puts his name in and then puts
the veteran's name in. But I don't have it. I
haven't advertised it as yet available to the public. But
(10:15):
there's no reason that somebody couldn't, you know, if they
hear about it, they can go to the brick application
that entices them to maybe apply for a brick. But
at the top of the at the top of the page,
there's a couple of graphics. One of them shows the
positioning of where the walls are going to be the
(10:36):
a frames are going to be placed, and right next
to that there's a couple images of people like silhouette
type people that are pointing to bricks on the walls.
There's a little bit of a verbiage right below that.
It says, your search results will indicate which of the
four walls they can find their brick and the word
(10:56):
search that just the word itself is hyperlinked and it
will take you to the locator app that I built.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
For That's a that's a great thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
There will also be QR codes at each of the
walls down at the display and so people will be
able to just point their phone and then that that
application will pop right up on their phone while they're there.
So that's great. Make it easy.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Now Now for people that want to purchase a brick,
they can do that with PayPal, and what where can
they find that at and and what are the It's
a fairly easy process. At least I got to the
purchase the brick on PayPal, and they'll be able to
use different to different cards to be able to make
the purchase. And it's one hundred dollars. But why don't
(11:43):
you you tell them that process?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Sure? Okay, So the website address is FOVMP dot org,
which is Friends of Veterans Memorial Park. We are we
are in for the last of a better word, cahoots
with the city of Davenport on everything that happens down
at the park, everything that's placed there, every decisions that
(12:10):
are made. We have members and high members of the
Davenport Park System on our team, and so we coordinate
with Davenport on a monthly basis. We have a meeting.
So basically the f o v MP dot org will
bring you to the base website and From there you
(12:33):
can get hurting an information from the site, different tabs
and stuff to go to different areas. But on on
the top of the page there's a there's a yellow
rectangle that says purchase Brickle PayPal, so people would click
on that. Then at the top of that form you
could you add your personal information so if we have questions,
(12:56):
we can contact you and make sure that you know
you're getting the right mommy information on the brick. So
then below the donor contact information we have the actual
area for the veterans information. We have several designs for
service branch logos and flags and things that people can
(13:18):
use as clip art. And that the clip art part
is an important part because if you use, if you
select clip art for your brick along with the three
lines of veterans information, that reduces the three lines of
veterans information by five spaces on each one. We have
some requirements by the engraver that there can be no
(13:41):
more than twenty characters on each one of the lines.
So if you don't want clip art, that's fine. That
gives you five more characters per line. So that's just
that's only available on the online version. I've got some
safeguards in there that won't let you add information that
(14:02):
you know over the twenty space limit. So having said that,
there are two places on that form, one at the
top and it says if you prefer to mail your
application or donation, click here. That will bring you to
a PDF file that you can actually fill out on
your computer and print it and send it through the
(14:23):
mail and we give the mailing address. So there's several
ways that you can apply for a brick.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's fantastic. And again to find out a little bit more,
I think the website is fantastic, gives you kind of
a rundown of phase one and two and into phase
three of what's happening down at the park. But if
they want to find out more, I think it's it's
great to give the acronym for the Friends of Veterans
Memorial Park again, and that I would gather there's also
(14:53):
something similar on Facebook or some of the socials. But
just so people can find out a little bit more,
give that website again.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, the website is f o v MP dot org
and we also have a Facebook link on the site,
so we do have a Facebook page and there's us
what we call it a site quick guide link that
will actually allow you to go to several different places
on the website to navigate the site. And we have
(15:24):
a donate button that will take you to if you
want to if you want they're both PayPal and if
you want to do it just a personal donation, you
can do that without buying a brick. There's also the
link for the brick donation. So basically that's it's a
simple acronym, like you said, for the website, and it's
pretty self intuitive on functionality and to follow. If it's not,
(15:48):
please let me know you didn't contact me from the
the website or the Facebook page, and I can you know,
find out what we can do to make it better
for you.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Well that's Roger that it's the voice of Roger grand Boys,
who again is not to toot your own horn as
we bring back the boogler the bugler again. But you
really designed a lot of this website and it really
seems like it's a great job that you've done. I
know you're not the only one that's part of this
whole thing, but again.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
We have a team. Yeah, I'm the one that's basically
in charge of the brick project. I'm also on the
committee for all the other stuff that we're bringing in,
but this Brick project. I was asked by mister Miles
Peterson to be a part of this because he knew
that I had website experience, web building experience through my
(16:45):
career at the Rock Island Arsenal, and I've also done
several community commercial websites here in the Quad Cities. And
I also have been involved with the Vietnam Veterans Organization
for a long time too, and probably about thirteen or
fourteen years ago, I built a online auction for the
(17:10):
Vietnam Veterans and that went really really well, and so
Lyle knew it. Lyle was a big help to me
in that process, and so we were the ones going
out doing the footwork, knocking door to door and getting
donations and then putting them on this auction site. So
he knew I had a lot of experience, and so
(17:30):
he asked me to join the Brick project, and so
I did and built the site, built the brick site,
built the locator part of it. So yeah, I have
done a lot of it. But there's a lot of
people in the background that are all part.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Of this well, like you said, takes a battalion, right.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
It does. It does the City of Davenport. The mayor
is involved. The mayor is on our committee. The several
high level park officials are on the committee. The design
person Zach Peterson Uh from Devenport Parks. He's basically helps
us design and let us know where the appropriate place
(18:12):
to put the next design feature into the into the park.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Well, we know we're into phase three right now and
moving forward when if there are other phases, it's going
to be great to be able to see the progress.
And it's just another It just seems awe inspiring to
be able to get down there at the right time,
to be able to enjoy just the bugle or sell
(18:37):
absolutely now.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Now the project, the brick project is our big money
razor right now. For every it's you'd think the one
hundred dollars is a lot to pay for a brick,
but you got to remember you're doing it for You're
buying something that's permanent for a loved one that's going
to recognize their service. But we are using the donations
(19:00):
that we receive across the committee about I would say
twenty seven to twenty eight dollars per brick. So the
rest of it is, you know, going to the fundraiser.
So the fundraiser not just to help build the commemorative bricks,
it is also funding the other three statues that we're having.
(19:21):
One will be a sailor down by the river, full
sized bronze and then or bronze like I don't know
if he's solid bronze. But then we'll have a female
in uniformed soldier by the Afghan a rock conflict area,
and will have a like I said before, we'll have
a soldier that's carrying a wounded soldier over by the
(19:45):
Vietnam area. So it helps to pay it's going to
help to pay for all three of those.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Also, I think it's it's fantastic when you think of
projects that people should be proud of and seeing their
money well spent right in front of them, is this
is a great way to go. Whether you have somebody
in the military, more than likely a family has somebody
connected in the military, but just being able to spend
(20:12):
some time, eat a lunch down at the park, whether
the bugler fires off or not, that scene down there
is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, you got the baseball diamond right there. If you
want to, you know, catch a game and come over
look at the park or have like you said, picnic
lunch or something down there. We're always improving the park.
We don't see an end to this as long as
the park is up and we have a team of
volunteers that want to, you know, keep doing that when
(20:44):
I'm seventy four years old, when we get ready to
kick the bucket, you know, we want people to be
able to carry this on. So we'll have those people.
People will step up, just like in any other service organization.
You know, it won't die.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Takes well, it's not gonna die because like you had
already said, it takes a battalion and there'll be somebody.
It's like a relay race that when one is done
and the other will take over and just pick it up.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
And go the batons the baton.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So and Roger one more time on that website again,
where can they go to see the progress and find
out more.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
The website is FOVMP dot org and the address for
the site for the park itself. If people have not
even visited it and they're just finding out right now
that there even is a new veterans park in Davenport.
It's at the south of South Marquette Street at the
river where the boat ramps are. There's also a park
(21:49):
down there. I think it's called.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Well, there's Centennials Centennials down there too, And then you
can look a little bit far I would gather you'd
say upriver and you'd see modern Woodman. So it's right
in that area exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
And we're right between the railroad bridge and the Centennial
Bridge right at the river. So I mean, it's a
beautiful location. And we've also made sure that we position
any of our elements in the park above the flood level,
or at least try to get it above the flood level.
(22:25):
And we had a couple of years ago a flood
that came up to just about where the flag poles
are and that was it. So we think we're pretty
safe on most of the stuff. We keep all that
knowledge in the back of our minds we're designing and
where we're going to place new articles. So and it's
always growing. So if people haven't even looked at the park,
(22:48):
come down and take a look at it. It's a
beautiful park. We have a forty foot very dynamic mural
that one of our members, Dave Schaeffer, and I believe
he's a teacher at West He actually painted that and
it's just a great attraction right there, just in itself.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
It's money well spent, very well spent. Roger, thank you
for the time, continued success and anytime you need a
little help with things, we'd love to talk about great
things on the Quad City form.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Well, Pat and Danny, thank you guys very much for
allowing us to voice our concerns and stuff about what
we're doing for the City of Davenport in conjunction with
the City of Davenport. We really appreciate you giving us
the time to spread the word.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Well, it's a small thing on our part, but we'll
take a bow with you. But you're the one doing all.
You and the organization are doing a lot of that
heavy lifting, and congrats to City of Davenport. Deserves to
take a bow. But we're all in this together. Roger,
call us anytime and we'll try to help.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Thank you very much. Pat appreciate it.
We have Roger grand Boys on the phone today talking
about Veterans Memorial Park, which there are four parks right
along the Mississippi River. This is probably one of the
newer ones looking for a landmark. It's the three flagpoles
that really kind of distinguishes it from maybe some of
the other parks. And Roger this particular park is it's
(00:23):
been an interesting little path its life has It's not
been a straight line, but it's been a line that
is consistently the arrow is pointing up towards what's being accomplished.
And when we talk about a city park, this, yeah,
is getting help from the city, but a lot of this.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Finds of Veterans Memorial Park FOVMP dot org. And yeah,
we actually are a team of former veterans, or not former,
we are veterans. Our mission basically is simple that we
want to do as much as we can to promote
the park, enhanced the items that are that are available
(01:03):
to see at the park. You had mentioned the three poles,
the flag poles. There's a whole lot more now than
just the flagpoles that were actually placed, I believe in
twenty eleven when we dedicated the park, very early on.
Now there's a forty foot mural that was created by
one of our Davenport residents. It's at the park. We
(01:24):
have flags for all of the service branches, including Space Force.
We have a bugler who now is fully functional and
lit at night and plays three times a day toots
his horn, and we are now in competition with the
Rock Island Marshal Roger.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I like it because if you're a bugler, at some
point you have to toot your own horn.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
You have to toot your own horn. Absolute. This is
not a live person. It actually is one step above
the battery operated horns that a lot of the VET
group to use at memorial services or funerals. And it's
not to take away from that importance. It's just that
this is a This is a bronze statue sits upon
(02:11):
a platform that three times a day he is programmed
to toot his horn. In the morning at seven o'clock
he'll play REVEE. Then at noon he'll play the national anthem,
and at nine o'clock in the evening he'll play REVEE.
And then there's also along with those three, there's a
way for us to activate an automated program that we
(02:35):
can at any time, press a button and they'll play
a medley of the service branch's anthems and some other
little ditties. But it last about fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
For people that are just at the park at any
one of those times, maybe if they tied it out
or not. What a awe inspiring thing. What just has
chills in the back of my spine just thinking about
being the when the bugler starts.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, you're exactly right. You know, you're standing up there
at seven o'clock in the morning or nine o'clock in
the evening and you start hearing that it's going to
be a little spine tangling.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Well and again going back to the bugler and having
the statue that all costs money.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, the bugler alone is a five thousand dollars item.
And we've got three more bronze statues that are going
to be placed in the very near future. I won't
go into detail, but they're five thousand to eight thousand dollars.
Also because one of them is a dual statue. It's
a soldier carrying a wounded soldier.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So and again, and that's where you're and you're trying
to make sure that you your organization can help make
that work and keep itself sustaining. Because we're talking about
the different phases that this park has gone through, and
we're kind of, I don't know where we're at now.
We phase one into phase two.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Say Phase one, I would say is the two thousand
and eleven up until twenty twenty two. In twenty twenty two,
I believe, we started Phase two, which is the mural,
the Bugler and all that the flags and all the
plaques that identify the branches of the service and also
(04:19):
different conflicts or wars that America is involved in. So
that's Stats two, and we had a ribbon cutting ceremony
on November two, I believe, I think it was twenty
twenty three that we had the ribbon cutting ceremony and
it went very very well. So now we're into Phase three,
which involves our big project, and that's called a commemorative
(04:41):
memorial brick project.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Tell us about that whole what we're going to be
able to see when it's fully completed down there.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
At the park. Okay, so the commemorative brick part is
actually a project that was kind of dreamed of at
the ribbon cutting ceremony in twenty twenty three, and it's
actually was brought to our attention by mister Lyle Peterson
who was a member of our committee and he was
basically in charge of getting donations, you know, going to
(05:08):
companies and help raise funds. So Lyle has since passed
away rights his soul, but he started a really good project,
got us all involved. And so basically what the bricks
are is you buy a four by eight inch paper brick,
could be a red paper brick. They're not going to
go on the ground there. We are building two A
(05:31):
frames to handle the bricks that we've got so far.
So far we've got one A frame bricks sold for
one of the A frames. We're working on the second
one now. So each A frame holds two hundred and
eighty eight bricks. So if we have to in the
future expand that we will, but right now we're sticking
with the two. So basically, through a donation of one
(05:54):
hundred dollars, you can purchase a brick. It doesn't have
to be from for a deceased service member, just anybody
who served in the any branch of the Armed Forces,
including Merchant Marines, Coastguard, Space Force as well. We don't
have any bricks from Space Force yet.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well that's relatively new, but eventually we'll see some more
people want to chime in on that for sure. But
what do you have.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
We have two bricks. They are from brothers from the
Civil War. They both served in the I think it
was twenty second Iowa Infantry and they actually fought that
the Battle of Vicksburg. One of them died at the
Battle of Vicksburg. And so we have two Civil War
veterans bricks on there. We have World War One veterans,
(06:38):
we have World War II Korea, Vietnam, and Afghan and
Iraq conflicts. So we covered it all. In fact, one
of our veterans that we actually the Friends Group paid
for his brick was a World War Two decorated veteran.
He was a Marine veteran just turned one hundred years old.
(07:01):
We had a party for him one hundred years of
life and also his service in World War II at Okinawa.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And I would gather too, Roger, that even if by
chance you were serving and it was peacetime, the bricks still,
whatever the case, gets your brick up there so that
family and friends and even the vet themselves can go
out there and look and look what I did. Everybody
kind of coming together. We had brought this phrase up
a lot of times in the past with any of
(07:32):
the interviews that we have on the Quad City Forum
where it takes a village in this particular case, it
takes the military to raise a village sometimes and we.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Can have a yeah, there we go.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That's what we'll kind of accustomize this for. Since we
have a finite space there, better hurry because if you
want to be a part of one of those two
A frames, you've only got just a few bricks left
before they complete the second A frame exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
The A frames are actually being built by the students
at Davenport West High School and their instructor and he's
in and he's Zen. Also has an uncle that was
a Vietnam Kia and his brick is also on the wall.
If they're being built right now, and they should be
within the next month or two placed at the park,
(08:22):
they're going to be behind the Bugler statue, and like
I said, there'll be two A frames and there will
also be a compass on the ground between the two
A frames. The compass is going to have if you
know what the praying soldier looks like you'll see him
kneeling down with the rifle and then the boots on
(08:42):
top of the rifle and a helmet. Then that will
be in the between the two A frames. Needed a
It sounds silly, but we needed a compass right there
because when you're down there standing in that part of
the river, the river actually runs east and west and
not north and south like most people think the Mississippi runs.
(09:05):
So we needed a compass to identify the directions because
on a locator service that I built, it actually will
identify the two different A frames as the South A
frame and the North A frame, which the South will
be closest to the river, in the north closest to
the city. So people will actually be able to identify
(09:29):
the A frames just by the compass, you know which
one we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And this brings up another point here when you talk
about the locator and even though we'll probably with the interview,
I don't want to stumble you. I don't want to
hold this up here, but there is a way for
people if they want to find certain bricks. Isn't there
a locator set up at the website that you designed?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
There there is. It's on it's available from the link
from a link on the actual application for a brick
put the donor puts his name in and then puts
the veteran's name in. But I don't have it. I
haven't advertised it as yet available to the public. But
(10:15):
there's no reason that somebody couldn't, you know, if they
hear about it, they can go to the brick application
that entices them to maybe apply for a brick. But
at the top of the at the top of the page,
there's a couple of graphics. One of them shows the
positioning of where the walls are going to be the
(10:36):
a frames are going to be placed, and right next
to that there's a couple images of people like silhouette
type people that are pointing to bricks on the walls.
There's a little bit of a verbiage right below that.
It says, your search results will indicate which of the
four walls they can find their brick and the word
(10:56):
search that just the word itself is hyperlinked and it
will take you to the locator app that I built.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
For That's a that's a great thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
There will also be QR codes at each of the
walls down at the display and so people will be
able to just point their phone and then that that
application will pop right up on their phone while they're there.
So that's great. Make it easy.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Now Now for people that want to purchase a brick,
they can do that with PayPal, and what where can
they find that at and and what are the It's
a fairly easy process. At least I got to the
purchase the brick on PayPal, and they'll be able to
use different to different cards to be able to make
the purchase. And it's one hundred dollars. But why don't
(11:43):
you you tell them that process?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Sure? Okay, So the website address is FOVMP dot org,
which is Friends of Veterans Memorial Park. We are we
are in for the last of a better word, cahoots
with the city of Davenport on everything that happens down
at the park, everything that's placed there, every decisions that
(12:10):
are made. We have members and high members of the
Davenport Park System on our team, and so we coordinate
with Davenport on a monthly basis. We have a meeting.
So basically the f o v MP dot org will
bring you to the base website and From there you
(12:33):
can get hurting an information from the site, different tabs
and stuff to go to different areas. But on on
the top of the page there's a there's a yellow
rectangle that says purchase Brickle PayPal, so people would click
on that. Then at the top of that form you
could you add your personal information so if we have questions,
(12:56):
we can contact you and make sure that you know
you're getting the right mommy information on the brick. So
then below the donor contact information we have the actual
area for the veterans information. We have several designs for
service branch logos and flags and things that people can
(13:18):
use as clip art. And that the clip art part
is an important part because if you use, if you
select clip art for your brick along with the three
lines of veterans information, that reduces the three lines of
veterans information by five spaces on each one. We have
some requirements by the engraver that there can be no
(13:41):
more than twenty characters on each one of the lines.
So if you don't want clip art, that's fine. That
gives you five more characters per line. So that's just
that's only available on the online version. I've got some
safeguards in there that won't let you add information that
(14:02):
you know over the twenty space limit. So having said that,
there are two places on that form, one at the
top and it says if you prefer to mail your
application or donation, click here. That will bring you to
a PDF file that you can actually fill out on
your computer and print it and send it through the
(14:23):
mail and we give the mailing address. So there's several
ways that you can apply for a brick.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That's fantastic. And again to find out a little bit more,
I think the website is fantastic, gives you kind of
a rundown of phase one and two and into phase
three of what's happening down at the park. But if
they want to find out more, I think it's it's
great to give the acronym for the Friends of Veterans
Memorial Park again, and that I would gather there's also
(14:53):
something similar on Facebook or some of the socials. But
just so people can find out a little bit more,
give that website again.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, the website is f o v MP dot org
and we also have a Facebook link on the site,
so we do have a Facebook page and there's us
what we call it a site quick guide link that
will actually allow you to go to several different places
on the website to navigate the site. And we have
(15:24):
a donate button that will take you to if you
want to if you want they're both PayPal and if
you want to do it just a personal donation, you
can do that without buying a brick. There's also the
link for the brick donation. So basically that's it's a
simple acronym, like you said, for the website, and it's
pretty self intuitive on functionality and to follow. If it's not,
(15:48):
please let me know you didn't contact me from the
the website or the Facebook page, and I can you know,
find out what we can do to make it better
for you.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Well that's Roger that it's the voice of Roger grand Boys,
who again is not to toot your own horn as
we bring back the boogler the bugler again. But you
really designed a lot of this website and it really
seems like it's a great job that you've done. I
know you're not the only one that's part of this
whole thing, but again.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
We have a team. Yeah, I'm the one that's basically
in charge of the brick project. I'm also on the
committee for all the other stuff that we're bringing in,
but this Brick project. I was asked by mister Miles
Peterson to be a part of this because he knew
that I had website experience, web building experience through my
(16:45):
career at the Rock Island Arsenal, and I've also done
several community commercial websites here in the Quad Cities. And
I also have been involved with the Vietnam Veterans Organization
for a long time too, and probably about thirteen or
fourteen years ago, I built a online auction for the
(17:10):
Vietnam Veterans and that went really really well, and so
Lyle knew it. Lyle was a big help to me
in that process, and so we were the ones going
out doing the footwork, knocking door to door and getting
donations and then putting them on this auction site. So
he knew I had a lot of experience, and so
(17:30):
he asked me to join the Brick project, and so
I did and built the site, built the brick site,
built the locator part of it. So yeah, I have
done a lot of it. But there's a lot of
people in the background that are all part.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Of this well, like you said, takes a battalion, right.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
It does. It does the City of Davenport. The mayor
is involved. The mayor is on our committee. The several
high level park officials are on the committee. The design
person Zach Peterson Uh from Devenport Parks. He's basically helps
us design and let us know where the appropriate place
(18:12):
to put the next design feature into the into the park.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Well, we know we're into phase three right now and
moving forward when if there are other phases, it's going
to be great to be able to see the progress.
And it's just another It just seems awe inspiring to
be able to get down there at the right time,
to be able to enjoy just the bugle or sell
(18:37):
absolutely now.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Now the project, the brick project is our big money
razor right now. For every it's you'd think the one
hundred dollars is a lot to pay for a brick,
but you got to remember you're doing it for You're
buying something that's permanent for a loved one that's going
to recognize their service. But we are using the donations
(19:00):
that we receive across the committee about I would say
twenty seven to twenty eight dollars per brick. So the
rest of it is, you know, going to the fundraiser.
So the fundraiser not just to help build the commemorative bricks,
it is also funding the other three statues that we're having.
(19:21):
One will be a sailor down by the river, full
sized bronze and then or bronze like I don't know
if he's solid bronze. But then we'll have a female
in uniformed soldier by the Afghan a rock conflict area,
and will have a like I said before, we'll have
a soldier that's carrying a wounded soldier over by the
(19:45):
Vietnam area. So it helps to pay it's going to
help to pay for all three of those.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Also, I think it's it's fantastic when you think of
projects that people should be proud of and seeing their
money well spent right in front of them, is this
is a great way to go. Whether you have somebody
in the military, more than likely a family has somebody
connected in the military, but just being able to spend
(20:12):
some time, eat a lunch down at the park, whether
the bugler fires off or not, that scene down there
is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah, you got the baseball diamond right there. If you
want to, you know, catch a game and come over
look at the park or have like you said, picnic
lunch or something down there. We're always improving the park.
We don't see an end to this as long as
the park is up and we have a team of
volunteers that want to, you know, keep doing that when
(20:44):
I'm seventy four years old, when we get ready to
kick the bucket, you know, we want people to be
able to carry this on. So we'll have those people.
People will step up, just like in any other service organization.
You know, it won't die.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Takes well, it's not gonna die because like you had
already said, it takes a battalion and there'll be somebody.
It's like a relay race that when one is done
and the other will take over and just pick it up.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
And go the batons the baton.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So and Roger one more time on that website again,
where can they go to see the progress and find
out more.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
The website is FOVMP dot org and the address for
the site for the park itself. If people have not
even visited it and they're just finding out right now
that there even is a new veterans park in Davenport.
It's at the south of South Marquette Street at the
river where the boat ramps are. There's also a park
(21:49):
down there. I think it's called.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Well, there's Centennials Centennials down there too, And then you
can look a little bit far I would gather you'd
say upriver and you'd see modern Woodman. So it's right
in that area exactly.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
And we're right between the railroad bridge and the Centennial
Bridge right at the river. So I mean, it's a
beautiful location. And we've also made sure that we position
any of our elements in the park above the flood level,
or at least try to get it above the flood level.
(22:25):
And we had a couple of years ago a flood
that came up to just about where the flag poles
are and that was it. So we think we're pretty
safe on most of the stuff. We keep all that
knowledge in the back of our minds we're designing and
where we're going to place new articles. So and it's
always growing. So if people haven't even looked at the park,
(22:48):
come down and take a look at it. It's a
beautiful park. We have a forty foot very dynamic mural
that one of our members, Dave Schaeffer, and I believe
he's a teacher at West He actually painted that and
it's just a great attraction right there, just in itself.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
It's money well spent, very well spent. Roger, thank you
for the time, continued success and anytime you need a
little help with things, we'd love to talk about great
things on the Quad City form.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Well, Pat and Danny, thank you guys very much for
allowing us to voice our concerns and stuff about what
we're doing for the City of Davenport in conjunction with
the City of Davenport. We really appreciate you giving us
the time to spread the word.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Well, it's a small thing on our part, but we'll
take a bow with you. But you're the one doing all.
You and the organization are doing a lot of that
heavy lifting, and congrats to City of Davenport. Deserves to
take a bow. But we're all in this together. Roger,
call us anytime and we'll try to help.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Thank you very much. Pat appreciate it.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.