Memorial to honor female veterans

A group is seeking $500,000 in donations to build a unique park at the Fort Douglas Military Museum in honor of female veterans.

Utah Military Veterans Advisory Committee chairwoman Su Richards said several women in her group came up with the idea because they felt females needed a memorial of their own.

"They were getting the respect but not the honor," said Richards, a research archivist at the museum. "As near as I can tell, there are very few memorials for women that have bronzes."

Sculptor Jerime Hooley will create two life-sized bronze sculptures. One will feature four women in different period uniforms running across a map of the United States. A second piece will depict a World War II nurse and a "woman warrior" lacing up her combat boots, Richards said. Workers will also build a gazebo for the memorial.

Hooley is an art teacher at Lehi High School. His sculptures can be seen at a Vietnam War memorial in West Valley City and at a Korean War memorial in Cedar City.

"This is such a huge feather in my cap, to have the opportunity to have the first memorial in Utah that's honoring women and their service," Hooley said. "It's an absolute honor. I really feel like it will be a premier monument on the country. I don't know that there's another monument like it that honors women in such a way."

Richards' nonprofit committee has begun raising funds, with only about $20,000 collected so far. The price of the sculptures alone will be about $140,000. She said the cost of the project could be covered if every person in Utah who knows a female veteran or is related to one donates just 50 cents.

"That's not even the price of a doughnut anymore," Richards said. She's shooting for a memorial dedication by Veterans Day in 2010, or Women's military history week in March 2011.

The site at Fort Douglas on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City will be near the tanks outside of the museum. The memorial will be open to the public during the museum's hours of operation.

People interested in donating are asked to call 801-581-1251.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com