By Miranda Vagg<br><a href="mailto:vaggm@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Miranda</a>
The Company F Memorial Committee is well into the process of collecting donations and preparing for the long-awaited sandstone monument that will be placed at the Medina armory, the current Lake Plains YMCA on Pearl Street.
The monument, a memorial to all the men who served out of the Medina armory during the course of 50 years and four wars — the Spanish American War of 1898, U.S.-Mexico war of 1916, World War I and World War II — will pay homage to those who trained in Medina. There also will be information on the plaques pertaining to medals of honor received and which regiments those men served in.
Company F Memorial Chairman Bill Menz said the funding campaign has been going on for the past several months, and the group has more than $6,000 in donations already.
Last fall, the committee received a donation of two large slabs of sandstone, from which they planned to have an obelisk monument cut. However, a cutting company in New England rejected one of the slabs when it discovered that the slab had several “fissures” in it that made it nearly impossible to cut. The second slab was inadvertently cut for a project in New York City and sent there.
Taking a different path, the committee is now purchasing sandstone and will have local contractors put the pieces together for the monument, Menz said.
“We’re about to sign on a proposal from Brad Rath and Brigden Memorial (in Albion), and Tony Russo to construct the monument. We can’t get stone out of the Hulberton quarry. ... The stone was originally going to be donated,” Menz said.
The original plan for the monument was for a simple, three-piece operation consisting of a base, center and cap. Because of the fractures in much of the sandstone in local quarries, the monument will now be pieced together and have “a few more mortar joints in it,” Menz said.
“This stone originally came from all of the quarries in Orleans County,” he said. “We’ll gather enough stone in slabs that these contractors have and piece it together.”
Although they lost between six and eight months on the project by not being able to have the stone processed, the group is now in motion.
“They’re really hoping to have the stone in place by the middle of August,” said Kathy Iorio. Iorio’s father served in Company F, and she and several other children of the Medina armory’s servicemen have offered their help to the committee.
As an employee at Medina Savings and Loan, Iorio also was helpful in setting up the account for monetary donations to the cause. She said many donations come in by mail, but people are welcome to stop by the bank on Maple Ridge Road to make a deposit. There also are pledge cards set up at the bank for those who would like to donate in honor or memory of someone.
Menz said donations have ranged from $5 to $1,000. So far, the committee has done two direct mailings — to committee members and to Orleans County Chamber of Commerce members.
Currently, the focus is on raising enough money to make the monument possible.
A full listing of donors is available on the armory committee Web site, www.medinaarmory.com. Donations may be sent to: Company F Memorial Fund, c/o Medina Savings and Loan, 11182 Maple Ridge Road, Medina NY 14103.
