YORK, N.H. (AP) - On one entire wall of the Ramsdell-Rogers American Legion Post, a five-panel mural has been erected just in time for this year’s Memorial Day. Each panel reflects a branch of the Armed Forces. The image of Iwo Jima arises from one, combat troops dropped from a helicopter are in another, a submarine submerging is seen in a third.
The mural, some 5 feet in height and 15 feet long, was painted by York High School art students and dedicated on Monday. It was a project that spanned time, a way for the veterans at the Post to reach out through the generations to the town’s teenagers and involve them in something that was a little bit bigger than them.
“The Post needs to part of the community and the community needs to be part of the Post,” said Cmdr. Donald Hands. “And we need to get more active with our youth. We were talking about that, and this idea presented itself.”
It seemed like a fitting time, as the American Legion prepares to celebrate its 100th year. Post member Jerry Allen took on the project, contacting school officials and finally meeting with art teacher Dave Shenett. Shenett proposed that his “dual enrollment” class of students, who are receiving high school and community college credits simultaneously, perform the work.
“We made it into a class project. I had a project in mind, but I set that aside. Any time you have an opportunity to do work in the community, you need to do it,” he said.
Allen said the students were asked to paint one panel for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. “I told them I wanted to see actions and movement. I didn’t want it to be static. I wanted them to bring this to life.”
When he came back to check on progress, he brought a couple of Legion members with him and they talked with the kids about their own experiences and about the place of honor these panels would hold for members now and long into the future.
“They lit a fire under the students,” said Shenett. “This became real for them. And they were committed to completing the work in time for Memorial Day.”
The Legion paid for the panels, Michael’s in Newington, New Hampshire donated the paint, and before long the images began to emerge from the blank canvases.
Hands proclaimed the panels, “awesome. All the motion is there. The streaming of the air past the plane, the motion of the water as the ship cuts through it, the movement of the helicopter blade. You can feel it.”
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Information from: Portsmouth Herald, http://www.seacoastonline.com
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