MVVM History

When the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built in Washington, D.C., it occurred to some people here that Minnesota should have a memorial for its own Vietnam vets. One of those people was Teresa Vetter.

A high school student during the final years of the war, Teresa was scarcely old enough to comprehend the full meaning of the reports she heard on the news: the live footage of battles in rice paddies and jungles, the protests on college campuses across the country. But when she heard that a friend’s brother had been killed in Vietnam, she understood that this faraway war could affect the lives of people she actually knew.

After the national memorial was dedicated and began to heal the entire nation, Teresa realized that most Minnesotans would not be able to visit “The Wall.” She came to feel more and more deeply that Minnesota should have its own memorial.

In September 1987, she began contacting others about her idea, including Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 62 in the Twin Cities. There she met Gary Lindsay and, later on, Tom Asp, who helped turn her idea into a dream. Soon a small but determined group formed and began to establish goals, gather more volunteers, and make plans to dedicate a memorial similar to the one in Washington, D.C. by 1988. The estimated cost was $200,000.

Dreams die hard, but this one almost did as corporations and key organizations denied their support. Many wanted no part of this “controversial issue.” To keep the dream alive, the struggling MVVM took its fundraising plea directly to the people of Minnesota, an effort that has lasted right up to this dedication. Dozens of volunteers spent countless hours sending out flyers, calling potential donors, selling T-shirts and asking for donations at county fairs, shopping malls, dances, the State Fair, anywhere they could think of.

The first big breakthrough came in 1989, one year after they had originally hoped to dedicate the Memorial. Doug Carlson, state representative from Sandstone and brother of a Vietnam veteran, introduced a bill in the legislature to authorize state support. Within ten days the legislature appropriated $300,000 and set aside a 2.4-acre site on the Capitol grounds.

In early 1990, deciding that a Minnesota memorial should be unique to Minnesota, the MVVM and the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board held a national design competition. Rich Laffin, Nina Ackerberg, Stanton Sears and Jake Castillo of the Twin Cities won the competition with their design, “Lakefront DMZ.” No longer a vague dream, the Memorial suddenly had a life of its own. It was all ready to lay out, pour, chisel and plant. It was almost real.

Almost. Though it had won much support, the Memorial was a far larger project now than anyone had imagined. Costs seemed to rise every day – by 1991, they had reached $1.2 million – while fund-raising slowed to a crawl. To complicate matters, nearly four years of total devotion to the project had left many volunteers exhausted. And $73,000 was still needed just to begin construction.

But then the second breakthrough came. Sally Adams, a grandmother from Delano and mother of a shattered vet, climbed 25 feet onto a billboard in Forest Lake and vowed to stay there until the construction funds were raised. For three weeks money flowed in until Bill Popp of LDB International wrote a check for the last $50,000 …and Sally could come down.

In February of 1992, James Steel Construction Company of St. Paul was awarded the contract to build the Memorial. To keep the bid low, supervisors and tradesmen volunteered to work nights and weekends on their own time and suppliers provided discounted materials and services. They broke ground in April and worked all summer to create what you see here today: a dream made real.