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Veteran, Kids Explore 'Freedom'
Tuesday, May 21, 2002
By Daniel J. Eizans
Evening News staff writer

Bill Goodman, a Monroe Vietnam veteran, talks to 46 Hurd Road Elementary third-graders Monday about the cost of freedom at Heck Park.
Image Credit: Price Chambers -- Monroe Evening News.

A Vietnam veteran helped give meaning to Memorial Day and to show that "freedom is not free."

Hurd Road Elementary third-graders listened attentively as local veteran Bill Goodman described the history of Monroe's Heck Park, freedom and why Americans celebrate Memorial Day.

Mr. Goodman gave the 46 students and their teachers a brief history of Heck Park and the memorials that stand within it as part of a program with local elementary schools. Third-grade teachers Shirley Cox and Barb Johnson bring their classes to the park annually to help their students understand the meaning of Memorial Day better.

"It's very important for them to see something like this," said Mrs. Cox. "You can read about it in a book for days, but seeing the park really helps the idea of what Memorial Day really means to people," she said.

Mr. Goodman told students about the various monuments and memorials in Heck Park, a Vietnam veterans' memorial park. He highlighted the black granite wall, which lists the 57 Monroe County residents who were either listed as killed in action or missing in action. He also spoke about the second wall listing more than 1,200 names of those who returned home to Monroe County as veterans of the Vietnam War.
(More: Monroe Evening News Source)
2002 © Monroe Evening News.

Dan