Vietnam Sculpture Added To Park

A new addition has been made to the Veterans Memorial Park in Beatrice.

On Friday the latest sculpture to be featured in the park was delivered and placed in the park.

Verdella Vetrovsky with the Beatrice Rotary Club says the one-thousand pound statue is dedicated to the Vietnam Veteran.

“This particular sculpture is going to be dedicated to the Vietnam Veterans. When they built this sculpture they did incorporate what guns they used, the hats, the shoes, everything towards the Vietnam era. We still have some sculptures to do. The next one we will probably dedicate to the Navy or the Air Force. We are hoping to get all the branches covered. But it just takes time.”

Plans to add the sculpture to the Park started four years ago. Vetrovsky says there were delays such as covid that slowed the process of getting the project completed.

She says there is still more to be added at the Veteran’s Park.

“We are still taking inscriptions for the Walls Of Honor. That is something that I really want to emphasize that this isn’t done. We are not done. Right now we have about 1840 inscriptions on the wall. We started back in 2005 when we dedicated the park we had about 900. So we have doubled. We have 20 walls that we can fill so we have lots of room left.”

Vetrovsky says the Park has become something the community can be proud of in Beatrice.

“The City does a great job of keeping it well maintained. We have had help from the National Honor Society as far as cleaning up the park. It is a community park and we are very proud of it.”

The Vietnam sculpture is the third statue that is featured in the memorial park located across from Chautauqua Park on south highway 77 in Beatrice.