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Articles and Announcements about Our Work
Letter from George Gamota to Lexington Remembers WWII Committee and Supporters
March 31, 2020
Dear Lexington Remembers WWII Committee and Supporters,
With Governor Baker closing all schools until May 4th, and asking us to stay home, we have to postpone some of our events.
Activities under consideration for postponing/changing format depending on situation due to the coronavirus. We should know the situation by late April.
Ongoing activities:
With Governor Baker closing all schools until May 4th, and asking us to stay home, we have to postpone some of our events.
- May 1 Songs of WWII
- May 2nd Living History Exhibition WWII
- New dates will be selected as we get updates from the State and Town
Activities under consideration for postponing/changing format depending on situation due to the coronavirus. We should know the situation by late April.
- May 18th Movie at the Community center
- May 25th Memorial Day activities
- May 28th “WWII Impact on Lexingtonians” Panel Discussion
Ongoing activities:
- Input from WWII veterans and their families. We have been getting many emails with photos and stories. The Gathering on March 11th was a tremendous success. Many came and brought memorabilia, photos, stories and more. Boxes of memorabilia have been stored at the Community center (thank you Christine Dean) for displays. Hopefully as the Community Center opens, we can set up the display. We really have some great material and looking for more. Please send them to WWTWOLexington@gmail.com
- Additionally, the stories that Ashley Rooney has been writing and the Colonial Times has published have brought people with more material. Thank you, Jim Shaw and Laurie Atwater, for giving us such good publicity. I also would like to thank Ross Cristantiello of the Lexington Minuteman for running some nice guest editorials about WWII.
- As we get this information on WWII veterans, Chuck French, Sue Stering and Paul Doherty have been adding to our eAlbum. We still need a few photos of the Fallen but to the addition of the 62 (maybe it is 61), we have over 130 entries and they are increasing. Remember we had 1,400+ Lexington WWII veterans so we have a long way to go. A good example of our research was finding, Willian Stevens, who served on USS Lexington and was lost on the day the ship was attacked on May 8th 1942. He is one of the 62 WWII Fallen.
- Our category #3 WWII veterans in our eAlbum are veterans who moved to Lexington after the war. It is expanding rapidly and we are delighted to have the input. Please continue to send us photos and any information of Lexingtonians who served in WWII. Our eAlbum and other WWII related information can be seen on our website: Please note it is work in progress.
- Our Lexington Remembers WWII video interviews have paused after doing 5 of them. The last one was done at Brookhaven with 4 veterans. These are available On Demand at LexMedia and will soon be available through our Web page. Older videos are also available so I would encourage you to browse the On Demand LexMedia offerings. I want to thank Steve Isenberg for doing the editing, Dan Fenn who did the interviews and Terra Samaras who did the camera work and Florence DelSanto from LexMedia for including our portfolio in LexMedia’s offerings.
- Ashley created Facebook account Lexington Remembers World War II and now we have a webpage: https://tinyurl.com/LexWWII. Thank you Harry Forsdick for finishing the webpage and our high school junior Ben Borgers for creating it.
- On the financial side, we are OK. We received $2,000 from the Rotary Club and $2,000 from the Lions Club. Thank you for your generous donation. The Lions Club donation is for funding of the plaque honoring the Fallen. I am still waiting for a cost estimate. Erika McAvoy on behalf of the Lexington Historical Society and the Lexington Veterans Association has written a proposal for the Community Endowment Fund. I am optimistic but we will not know how successful we will be until May. As a result, I am holding off purchasing street light banners until I get a clearer picture of our situation. I am reaching out to some vendors for support but hanging them out in the beginning of May is in question. I do hope they can be hung for Memorial Day and then again in the fall as we were given permission by the Town.
These are trying times, but I am sure we all will get through it. We are fortunate that we live in an age that technology helps us to be in touch with each other. Virtual hug is not as good as a real one but better than just a phone call. My father told me stories of how it was during the Spanish flu of 1918 and WWI at the same time.
Stay safe. As things evolve, I will stay in touch with you by publications, webpage and Facebook. I hope our committee can meet sometime virtually late in April to plan ahead. Our heroes will not be forgotten.
George Gamota, Chair
Lexington Remembers WWII Committee
