|
|
From left, Jim Barense of Mid Michigan Helicopters of Greenville, Greenville resident Todd Klein and his granddaughter, Macy Klein, 10, of Greenville, Denny Craycraft Veterans Freedom Park Committee Vice President Holly Noble and Committee Treasurer Reta Imhoff pose in front of one of Barense’s helicopters as Klein was awarded a check of $2,512 after he won a ball drop raffle contest at the “Denny Craycraft Classic” golf outing fundraiser at Glenkerry Golf Course in Greenville on Sept. 16. — DN Photo | Cory Smith
GREENVILLE — More than a decade ago, excavators first arrived on the grounds outside of the Pere Marquette Depot in Belding as Denny Craycraft watched his vision to establish a veterans park in the community come to life.
Originally proposed in 2009, Craycraft first saw his dream to create a replica World War II Freedom Wall come to life as steel beams were erected in the summer of 2011.
Now 11 years later, those initial efforts to construct a single monument have grown to a point where the Denny Craycraft Veterans Freedom Park is nearly finished, complete with not just one monument, but one for every U.S. war and conflict since World War I.
While Craycraft passed away in 2019, his dream to bring numerous war and veteran monuments to the city continued on through the efforts of his daughter, Holly Noble, and her fellow members of the park’s committee, resulting in monuments that honor those who fought in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq and more.
From the very beginning, Craycraft pursued efforts to construct the park on city property through fundraising efforts, collecting donations year after year as monument after monument was placed at the park.
A helicopter piloted by Jim Barense of Mid Michigan Helicopters of Greenville drops golf balls from the air during a ball drop raffle contest at the “Denny Craycraft Classic” golf outing fundraiser at Glenkerry Golf Course in Greenville on Sept. 16. — Submitted photo
While it took hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring the park to fruition, the park entered new territory this past month following the park’s annual “Denny Craycraft Classic” golf outing fundraiser at Glenkerry Golf Course in Greenville — it is now officially debt free.
“Everything is paid off,” Noble said. “This fundraiser helped us complete that goal.”
Noble said the park’s likely final monument — the Purple Heart monument — was recently finished at the park and will be dedicated on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
With approximately $11,000 raised at the Sept. 16 golf outing, Noble said the Purple Heart monument has been paid for and the only remaining costs at the park are for annual items such as regular maintenance.
“This fundraiser was amazing,” she said. “Our profits from the event ended up being right around $11,000. When all is said and done, it was just a great event — our biggest fundraiser of the year. We doubled our amount raised from last year.”
Noble said after a modest effort last year to raise funds through a golf outing, the turnout for this year’s event was more than she expected.
“The teams just started coming in this year,” she said. “We only have room for 32 teams and we ended up with 26. We’d love to sell out next year.”
One of the more successful elements of this year’s golf outing was a fundraiser in which people could enter into a 50-50 raffle in which golf balls would be dropped from a helicopter for a “closest to the pin” contest.
According to Noble, a total of approximately 1,500 golf balls were dropped from the sky as Jim Barense of Mid Michigan Helicopters in Greenville made three trips into the air in order to drop all of the balls.
Only one golf ball made it into the hole — that ball was No. 667, belonging to Todd Klein of Greenville.
Klein was presented with a check in the amount of $2,512 by Noble and Park Committee Treasurer Reta Imhoff on Sept. 29.
“It was a really nice event, and for a great, great cause,” Klein said. “I just wish more people would come visit, to come and see the park, that haven’t. There’s a lot of people, even local people, who said they’ve never been there.”
With all monuments at the park now in place, Noble said the efforts of the committee will now be on attempting to place both a war-era helicopter and tank at the park for permanent display.
“Next, we’re really working hard for a tank and helicopter,” she said. “We’d love to have those there for display purposes. Those are our next big purchases.”
Additionally, Noble said the committee would like to purchase a mobile, interactive monument that would contain the name of every area veteran. The monument would allow visitors to explore the history of those veterans, with items such as letters written during wartime and military dog tags preserved digitally.
Noble estimates the cost of such an interactive monument at about $17,000.
“It’s very similar to what Ionia High School has in their lobby,” she said. “It would have a list of every area veteran. It contains a full database. You touch the name and view things about the veterans.”
Because the monument would be mobile, Noble said it wouldn’t be confined to the park.
“We would bring it in when we have events, or if the city would let us, we would keep it inside the depot building,” she said.
