thedrifter
12-01-05, 06:23 AM
Posted on Thu, Dec. 01, 2005
Bricks aid Marines museum
Walkway to carry names of donors
Knight Ridder
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - When is a brick more than just a brick?
When it's laser-inscribed and cemented into a walkway outside the future Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas.
Museum organizers are once again selling 4-by-8-inch and 8-by-8-inch hard clay blocks as fundraisers for the long-talked-about museum that will honor Marines from Camp Lejeune, and New River, Cherry Point and Beaufort, S.C., air stations.
They plan to have an architect on board by the beginning of 2006.
"We just kicked the [brick] campaign back up again," said Joe Houle, a retired Marine sergeant major who serves now as the museum's sergeant major.
But for the first time, the Marine Corps museum is selling the bricks from a kiosk donated by the Jacksonville Mall. Museum organizers are also advertising them on four local billboards.
Houle, who manned the mall's stand for most of the post-Thanksgiving weekend, said the kiosk is proving useful. Even on Monday, the thin stream of pedestrian traffic slowed around the glass-encased depiction of the future facility.
The display also includes several of the bricks that will actually be used in the walkway - something Houle believes has helped the fundraising effort.
Since they first went on sale three years ago, about 1,500 of the bricks have been sold, Houle said. The smaller bricks cost $150, and the larger ones cost $250.
To date, organizers have collected $4.5 million in pledges and contributions, including $1 million pledged each by the city of Jacksonville and Onslow County, of the estimated $16 million it will cost to build the museum.
Ellie
Bricks aid Marines museum
Walkway to carry names of donors
Knight Ridder
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - When is a brick more than just a brick?
When it's laser-inscribed and cemented into a walkway outside the future Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas.
Museum organizers are once again selling 4-by-8-inch and 8-by-8-inch hard clay blocks as fundraisers for the long-talked-about museum that will honor Marines from Camp Lejeune, and New River, Cherry Point and Beaufort, S.C., air stations.
They plan to have an architect on board by the beginning of 2006.
"We just kicked the [brick] campaign back up again," said Joe Houle, a retired Marine sergeant major who serves now as the museum's sergeant major.
But for the first time, the Marine Corps museum is selling the bricks from a kiosk donated by the Jacksonville Mall. Museum organizers are also advertising them on four local billboards.
Houle, who manned the mall's stand for most of the post-Thanksgiving weekend, said the kiosk is proving useful. Even on Monday, the thin stream of pedestrian traffic slowed around the glass-encased depiction of the future facility.
The display also includes several of the bricks that will actually be used in the walkway - something Houle believes has helped the fundraising effort.
Since they first went on sale three years ago, about 1,500 of the bricks have been sold, Houle said. The smaller bricks cost $150, and the larger ones cost $250.
To date, organizers have collected $4.5 million in pledges and contributions, including $1 million pledged each by the city of Jacksonville and Onslow County, of the estimated $16 million it will cost to build the museum.
Ellie