After five years of work, veteran Bob Shay was finally able to put shovel to dirt at the “Lest We Forget” monument in Downtown Park.
Tucked between two elms — formerly three — the monument was dedicated by the Bellevue Minute Women and Bellevue School District on Armistice Day 1926 to the lives of three local men who died fighting in World War I: Victor Freed, Victor E. Hanson and Oscar Johnson.
A Vietnam-era Veteran and chaplain for the local VFW Post 2995, Shay took up the charge to bring the monument back into focus at the park.
“It’s always and only been about these three guys, and that’s the way I want to keep it,” Shay told a gathering of supporters surrounding the monument Monday morning.
The small ceremony preceded the groundwork being taken on by GLY Construction, which is donating labor and 95 percent of the materials to create a circular plaza around the monument, with three flag posts representing Freed, Hanson and Johnson.
GLY project superintendent Jesse Neil said that work should take 2 1/2 weeks to complete. He added GLY co-founder Frank Young, Jr. had once been involved with the VFW.
Rainbow Metals of Monroe has also been commissioned to shape Shay’s concept art into a bronze sculpture to sit on top of the monument, where a flagpole the size of a ship’s mast had once been propped.
The sculpture will be of a folded ceremonial casket flag on its squared top against part of a flag pole. The three bronze roses lying over the flag will also honor the three soldiers, much like VFW members once did at the monument every Memorial Day.
“I had so many ideas,” Shay said. “Someone on the heritage council said, ‘You want to make sure it relates historically.’ “
Shay is still fundraising for the project, and hopes to have the sculpture sitting on the monument for a July 4 rededication ceremony, ideally in conjunction with a groundbreaking ceremony that day for completing the circle at Downtown Park.
“It has just been a fantastic five-year journey,” Shay told the Bellevue City Council Monday night.
Shay can be reached at 206-478-0505 or robertallanshay@gmail.com. Donations can be made to: Veterans of Foreign Wars, Lake Washington Post 2995, C/O care of WWI Monument Project, 4330 148th Ave. N.E., Redmond, WA 98052.
