Valparaiso Park Foundation –
Service Memorial
Service Memorial In the fall
of 2000, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Chequeuk Lodge 56, Valparaiso (IOOF),
approached the Valparaiso Park Foundation about funding and creating a Service Memorial
on park property. After almost a year of discussion involving IOOF members and the
Park Foundation Projects Committee, on November 9, 2001, the group officially announced
its plans for the creation of the Service Memorial of the Veterans and Volunteers Plaza.
Completed and dedicated on Sunday, October 26, 2003, the brick plaza, located
in front of the park offices at Foundation Meadows Park, features landscaping, an
interactive fountain, a gazebo, and, at the focal point, four granite monuments:
Duty and Sacrifice, Charity, Friendship, and Hope.
Contributions for this privately
funded $225,000 project included a $10,000 donation from the Valparaiso Parks and Recreation Foundation, $50,000 from the IOOF, and a $15,000 leadership gift from
Tri Kappa Sorority for the adjacent gazebo. The remainder of the
funds were raised
through private donations and the sale of commemorative bricks that now surround
the granite monuments.