Being able to establish it there is “monumental,” said Centerville Police Department Detective Adam Bennett, the non-profit’s president.
“This will be there to remember all the officers that have given the ultimate sacrifice and make sure they’re never forgotten, and trying to help their families and make sure families know that their sacrifice was not in vain,” Bennett said.
Since its founding in 2007, MCLEMA has not only been holding an annual memorial ceremony, it also has provided financial assistance to survivors in need and awarded college scholarships. But its main goal was always to build a permanent memorial to honor fallen heroes.
After years of searching for the ideal location, the association secured a home for the memorial with the assistance of the Dayton Masonic Foundation.
“It provides a central location for people to gather and pay their respects to officers that were killed in the line of duty in northern or southern Montgomery County,” he said.
The group worked this past Tuesday afternoon to remove trash, glass and other debris from the site and neighboring alleyways and streets as part of a cleanup effort sponsored by Allstate Foundation’s Helping Hands program.
The memorial has already been designed. It will include a sculpture called “Together We Rise,” designed by artist James Dinh of Cerritos, California, as part of a nationwide competition that garnered 58 design proposals from professional artists in 28 states. Part of the memorial will be inscribed with the names of all fallen officers, the department they served and when they died.
“One of the reasons we picked his design was it represented a uplifting monument of five different spires that were designed to look like wings of a bird with a weaved pattern,” said Butler Twp. Police Chief John Porter, chairman of the memorial building committee for MCLEMA and one of the organization’s trustees. “We felt that it would be very inspiring to be located next to the river and centrally located for all of the agencies and for the general public to be able to see at any time.”
A groundbreaking for the memorial is slated for spring 2024 with completion expected by next October, Bennett said.
The projected cost is $1.5 million. Private donors and various fundraisers, including Rockin’ The River in West Carrollton this past September, have helped raise about one-third of that amount, Bennett said.
Those who wish to donate may do so by sending a check or money order to MC Law Enforcement Memorial Association, P.O. Box 1082, Dayton, OH, 45401. To donate online, visit www.mcmemorial.com/Donate.
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