By Kim McDarison
Three veterans groups recently worked together to donate and install a bench, which has been erected in Evergreen Cemetery, Fort Atkinson, near the Soldiers Circle monument.
The three groups are the Vietnam Veterans Chapter 409, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1879 and the American Legion Post 166.
Rolland Carothers, speaking with Fort Atkinson Online by phone, and describing himself as a “proud veteran” and a member of the three veterans groups, said that while he might have come up with the idea to have a reflection bench in Evergreen Cemetery, the bench became a reality after veterans within all three of the groups embraced the concept.
“The bench was a team effort,” he said.
“I’m a proud vet myself of 22 years,” Carothers noted, adding that he served in the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army.
He served in Vietnam, and while he was still in the service during Desert Storm, he was not sent overseas, he said.
Carothers said he lives near Evergreen Cemetery and often takes walks there.
“It’s so beautiful there; I call it my park,” he said, noting the bench came to him as an idea one day while he was walking in his park.
“I thought it would be nice to be able to sit near Soldiers Circle in the cemetery and reflect,” he said.
Carothers shared his idea with his fellow veterans within each of the three groups, and each group embraced the idea, he said, with each group donating $1,000 to the project.
From start to finish, the project took about five or six months, he noted.
The bench was in place by Memorial Day, he added.
Don Gross, representing Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 409, from left; Bill Imsland, representing Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1879, and Roland Carothers representing Commander Joel Osmondson of American Legion Post 166, sit on a reflection bench that was recently donated by the three local veterans groups. The bench was installed near Soldiers Circle in Evergreen Cemetery in advance of Memorial Day. Contributed photo.
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