Students, observers made Traveling Wall special

As one of the volunteers that helped work and help visitors at the traveling wall at the Batavia VFW May 1-5, I would like to give a big shout-out of thanks to all that visited, especially Rotolo Middle school. The students had a project where they found the names of all the Vietnam soldiers on that wall from Kane County that died and printed out their information on sheets for them and had them laminated.

They then had them separated city by city, so if anyone was looking for that individual, that sheet could be given to them so they could find their name on the wall, section by row.

Those same students also came down to the wall, in two groups of 200-plus, found a name on the wall and took a picture of it.

What a great project to help these students get some understanding of what these young men, some of them only kids, the youngest only 15 years old, did and died for our country. I am also glad I had the opportunity when helping people find people they were looking for on the wall and to hear stories about them. People that they went to high school with, people they served with, and of course people they loved and lost during that conflict.

Even with the poor weather, I worked the from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 2 during all that rain; worked from 8 p.m. May 2 and again Friday, May 3, from noon to 4 p.m. There were many people that showed up to find their fallen loved ones and give them the respect they deserved. I only wish the weather was better so more individuals would have shown up, but as one veteran told me, this rain and mud is nothing like what we went through.

Raymond Ruhl

North Aurora