Ten years ago this week, the National D-Day Memorial opened with presidential speeches and a spotlight on the sacrifices of Bedford and its sons and soldiers.
It was a proud moment for the city and its breathtaking accomplishment of securing a national memorial within its borders that, true to its mission, has drawn more than a million people to the site over the years.
On Monday, the memorial will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a modest ceremony amid questions about an uncertain future.
Donations, the memorial’s lifeblood, are down. Total revenue, which includes ticket sales, have declined by nearly 50 percent from 2007 to 2010. And the number of visitors dropped below 60,000 per year for the first time last year.
Amid the challenges, the National D-Day Memorial Foundation has stayed true to the spirit of the site as it fights for survivial. Its leaders say that is a legacy that it will carry into the next decade as they work toward a secure future for the memorial and the memories it honors.
“The foundation continues to meet each new challenge with integrity, resolve and fortitude,” said Robin Reed, the memorial foundation’s president.
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Struggles are nothing new for the D-Day memorial. It took years of work to make the site a reality, and, since opening, the memorial has survived other financial woes.
Mike Shelton, Bedford’s former mayor, traces the beginnings of the site to a resurgence of D-Day interest at the time of the event’s 50th anniversary in 1994. Bedford leaders became involved in an effort conceived by D-Day veteran Bob Slaughter to build a memorial and took tours with Slaughter’s committee to various sites around the area.
When its current spot off U.S. 460 in the west end of Bedford, on a hill above the elementary school, was targeted, Shelton said the city donated 11 acres to the memorial foundation for the project; the foundation eventually would purchase 77 more acres for the site.
The effort gained more steam in 1996, when Congress passed legislation that designated the site in Bedford as the nation’s memorial to D-Day because of the community’s loss of men, the highest per capita in the country, in the invasion. Also that year, Richard Burrow, a Roanoke businessman and historian, was hired as the memorial’s first president; a groundbreaking was held the following year.
The memorial construction cost $25 million; the site garnered much acclaim and fanfare when it was dedicated on June 6, 2001, and admired by President George W. Bush in his visit.
A month later, Col. William McIntosh became the foundation’s second president when Burrow resigned, citing health reasons. It was revealed later that year that the foundation was $5 million in debt over the memorial’s construction.
The foundation declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002 and eventually arranged to pay off creditors over a period of five years.
Meanwhile, Burrow was tried in federal court in late 2002 on charges of fraud: He was accused of using an illegal scheme to raise money for the memorial but a jury did not reach a verdict and the case was dismissed. Burrow was tried again two years later and for a second time a jury did not reach a verdict and he did not face a conviction.
The memorial’s debt and its former president’s legal issues did not discourage traffic to the site. In the first three years, foundation officials said the visitation was higher than expected: 417,000 in 2001, nearly 200,000 in 2002 and close to 94,000 in 2003.
Since then, though, the total number of visitors in a single year has not risen above 81,510 and last year fell below 60,000 for the first time. The foundation says the number was low because the memorial closed for 110 days due to bad weather and a cost-savings measure to close on Mondays that came to an end earlier this year.
In late 2007, the memorial reached what the foundation considers a major milestone: paying off the construction debt
“We worked hard to pay off that debt and get through those financial difficulties,” said April Cheek-Messier, director of education.
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At the time the memorial retired its debt, the economy took a turn for the worst.
According to 990 tax forms for the memorial foundation in the past three fiscal years — from July 2007 to June 2010 — revenues dropped from $2.2 million to $1.4 million to $1 million. Contributions and grants fell from $1.8 million in fiscal year 2007 to $711,000 in fiscal year 2009.
Ticket and gift shop sales and memberships comprise 22 percent of revenues, Cheek-Messier said, and are not enough to make up for shortfalls in donations.
Just before the 65th anniversary of D-Day, in 2009, McIntosh announced that the memorial was in dire financial straits and could face “the very real prospect” of closing without a new umbrella of ownership to ensure sustainability.
The foundation turned to lawmakers to pursue having the National Parks Service assume management of the site.
The parks service currently is studying the feasibility of that proposal after Congress authorized the work.
Amanda Jones, a NPS project manager for the special resource study, said a team has been to the memorial recently for site analysis work that includes determining the cost of maintenance and evaluating resources. She said the study should be completed by next spring.
“We’re still very early in the process,” Jones said.
Gaining parks service oversight is far from a sure thing. The memorial is not the only attraction involved in such a study; Jones estimated there are nearly two dozen ongoing throughout the nation.
And findings could include other alternatives besides park service management, she said. For example, one solution could be to make the memorial an affiliated area of the park service; such an area would be assisted by the NPS but would not be federally owned or directly administered by the federal government, she said.
U.S. Rep. Robert Hurt, R-5th District, said recently he is supportive of the memorial joining the park service in the context of a balanced budget; he said Washington is trillions of dollars in debt and “it’s going to be a difficult time to be taking on new obligations.”
“I certainly believe it would be a great asset to our national park system,” he said.
Hurt said he has met with Reed and the foundation’s board of directors.
“It seems to me they have been working very diligently to raise money and continue to refine a business plan that makes it work,” said Hurt. “This is a challenging time for any entity to survive. I am looking for ways to be helpful … I am hopeful and optimistic they can get through these funding challenges.”
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Meanwhile, Reed has said the foundation is exploring other options in regard to its long-term financial future and moving ahead with plans to add more attractions to the site.
In past years, the memorial has added to its visual story of D-Day, installing new statues, plaques and exhibits throughout the grounds, including a “victory garden” in honor of Roy Stevens, a D-Day veteran and one of the Bedford Boys who volunteered there.
One particular addition, an Allied leaders sculpture display, drew much protest from the public in 2010 when a bust of Joseph Stalin was installed. Reed said the foundation is planning how to relocate the political leaders section into a “more appropriate venue” for interpretation.
The memorial foundation has long envisioned an education center on the site that would be vital in keeping the D-Day legacy alive for younger generations, particularly as the memorial loses perhaps its greatest asset: the first-hand memories of those who fought in the invasion. Ray Nance, the last of the Bedford Boys who landed on Omaha Beach, died two years ago and the country loses an estimated 1,000 of its World War II veterans each day.
The education center has been referred to as a vital piece to complete the memorial. Plans include a theater, exhibit spaces, seminar and video rooms, computer education, work stations, research and archival space and galleries to depict D-Day on the battlefront and the home front.
Reed said the foundation has a multi-layered plan for future years that includes the memorial being “financially sustainable,” depicting the roles of the Army Air Core, Merchant Marines, the Coast Guard and the Navy; giving “greater presence” on the site to the Bedford Boys legacy, expanding the story of D-Day to include regional, national and international themes and building the education center.
The memorial foundation says it has educated more than 100,000 schoolchildren in its first 10 years and the younger generation is a major focus.
More than 200 students from James River Day School, a private K-8 school in Lynchburg, toured the grounds of the memorial on the Friday before Memorial Day.
Mary Riser, head of school, said she noticed how students’ excitement took a more quiet and reverent turn during the tour.
“As the understanding of what D-Day actually was comes to them,” she said, “they get more reflective."
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