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Old 03-26-2011, 10:53 PM
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Default Mark Morse Kills Veterans Celebration and Vietnam Memorial Wall

This is a story of a failed attempt to honor our veterans in The Villages, as well as current active local participants serving in the Army Reserve and National Guard, and the children and grandchildren of Villages residents. It included bringing the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall (“The Wall”) to the Villages. It is a case of something that should have been a “No Brainer” being rejected for no apparent reason by Mr. Morse.

Background
In October,2010 two Villages residents who were members of The Community Improvement Council (“CIC”) had a vision. The vision was a celebrationto honor our veterans and those currently on active duty. It was called The Villages Veterans Celebration (“TVVC”), a series of events, which had never been presented before at The Villages. Yes, on every solemn occassion, ie. Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and other fitting days a moving and fitting ceremony has been held at the Developer donated Veterans Memorial Park. Yet it did not seem enough.

At the same time it was found out that The Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter #1036 was trying to bring the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall to our great Villages, but they were finding the cost to be prohibitive. It was thought that it would be a great Veterans Celebration to bring the two together. What could be a more appropriate way to honor our Veterans?

Because of the number of Veterans and the proposed size of the event and the size of “The Wall” it was felt that the Polo Field (site of the Golf fest, site of the Christmas Parade, site of the Hoedown ,site of the Horse Pull, etc.) would be the largest, safest and most secure location for this event. A location where people could park their cars or Golf Carts and safely walk to the events, where “The Wall” could be available 24-hours a day for visitation, where Veterans could march proudly in safety, where handicapped Veterans could safely participate, where spectators in the thousands could watch under some protection from the sun, and celebrate our Veterans with parades, exhibits, speeches, food, and music. An event where everyone could safely and respectfully walk to “The Wall” to honor those would fell in the service of our country all in a quiet and serene area away from traffic, honking horns, and trucks.

Because of the proposed participation of area Veterans groups, as well as those, who support our troops the event had a motto – “Together We Care”.

Plans for the Villages Veterans Celebration
With this as a back drop a request was sent to the named contact at the Polo Field to discuss availability, dates, costs, etc. The Villages Entertainment Department (“Entertainment Department”) responded.

Several meetings were set-up with the “Entertainment Department”. They originally were enthuiastically in favor of both “TVVC” and “The Wall”. They proposed to help fund “The Wall” with proceeds from a charity concert to be held in the weeks prior to the event; they proposed a separate “named” concert at the Polo Field to kick off the celebration and a dramatic night-time unveiling of “The Wall” bathed in lights. They checked the Polo Field calendar and found out that someone at The Villages Sales Office had reserved the Polo Field during one of the proposed days for a High School Graduation Party and offered to check whether the party was on or could be moved. They offered to reduce the price for the rental of the Polo Field to $1,500 per day. They offered to make the arrangements with “The Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall” (“The Vendor”) and place a down payment with them. The Entertainment Department offered to pay for a mediation park to be located in front of “The Wall” and equip it with benches, and plants. With this cooperation and excitement in hand the following organizations were contacted and formed a steering committee.
The participating organizations in the TVVC are:
All Military Veterans Group of the Villages
Colonel Phillip C. Delong #1267 Marine Corps League
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10126 (The Villages)
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8083 (Belleview)
Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1036 (The Villages)
Retired Military Family Group
American Legion Post 347 (Lady Lake)
Tri-County Woman’s Veterans
Korean War Veterans Association
Disabled American Veterans (DAV)
U.S. Submarine Veterans
Veterans of Underage Military Service
Sumter County Veterans Service
Military Retiree Activities Office
Military Officers Association of America (MOAA)
AMVETS 2006 – Guardians of Freedom
The Villages Memorial Park Honor Guard
Wounded Warriors
World Wide Airborne Club
Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH)
North Lake Detachment of Marine Corps League
As well as Operation Shoebox and USA Cares
No one had brought all these organizations together before. No one even had a list of who, what or where these organizations existed. But Together We Care and care they did.

A Steering Committee was formed that was led by The CIC; a 20 page planning document was developed as a basis for going forward; meetings were held. The Entertainment Department was invited to attend, participate, and provide assistance. However, their enthusiasm was beginning to wane. They did not attend.

The celebration soon grew to include the following events:
- a one-day Villages Veterans Celebration to include a “military”
parade, marching bands, a stage with music from local groups, sponsor
and participating group tents, displays, food vendors, flea market,
speeches, fly-over from vintage planes and just one fun all around day
- a four-day display of the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall, with daily
opening and closing ceremonies, meditation music from local Villages
Groups
- Speeches from 10 retired Generals, many were Villages Residents
- A dinner/dance at Savannah Center
- Displays from the Florida Military Order of the Purple Heart and the
Villages Retired Military Family Group
- A separate “Shadow Walk” sponsored by USA Cares - a Candle light
procession to honor our fallen with a separate parade prior to it with
participation from non-military Villages groups
- A separate ceremony to honor our veterans on June 6 – D-Day
- A request was made inviting the participation of the 82nd Airborne
Chorus

A truly fantastic series of events they involved the cooperation of many, many Villages groups both retired and active military, and non-military. The event was scheduled for a period of June 2 – June 7, 2011.

Most events were FREE. Only the Dinner/Dance would be a fund raiser. Additional funding would come from donations, sponsorships, the Shadow Walk, and program advertising.

The Developer Has Second Thoughts
BUT something was missing. The Mark Morse’s Organizations were hesitating to provide any form of support. First it was proposed that a portion of any money raised would go to Moffitt Center. The Veterans Groups rejected that idea because they felt that there were other worthy causes to help present and future veterans that could use any proceeds or excess donations.

The requirements of “The Wall” required a flat area or lacking that, a platform would be required to be built to mount “The Wall” and keep it level. There were concerns by The Developer that there might be damage to the Polo Field.

The Villages tried to move the site to an area by the Mulberry Plaza near the VA Clinic. Their rational was to encourage people to come to Mulberry and help the merchants out. They felt that this site had the advantage of the use of the VA Clinic parking lot when it was closed. However, this location had major drawbacks- it was off of an active Route 42; there was an active parking lot; streets would have to be closed off for the parade; there was no shade for spectators during the June heat, people attending the parade and people wishing to shop would share the same space and parking, security for “The Wall” and participating tents and other facilities would have to be extensive, a fly-over might cause accidents, people would have to walk down Mulberry Lane, they were bushes that blocked one-side of the parade. People parking in the shopping center or VA Clinic would have to cross an active road.So this proposed site was rejected as just not adequate for a celebration.
Attempts for Approval for Use of the Polo Field
To address the Developer’s concerns several proposals were offered including moving the site of “The Wall” to a location within the Polo Field that had been used in the past for parking. The parade and celebration would continue on or near the main Polo Field.

Copies of the specifications and installation instructions for this Wall were given to the Entertainment Department for forwarding to the Villages Construction Department (“Construction Department”) for their advice and assistance in planning and construction (certainly an organization that has coordinated the building of 50,000 homes, 8 shopping centers, a hospital, 2 Town squares, several artificial lakes could help us install this Wall without damage to the Polo Field).

A request was made to the Entertainment Department to schedule a meet with the various Villages Departments including them, Construction, Public Safety and others to review the plans and solicit assistance.

During this time no paper work was returned to the Vendor, no down payment was made, no date was secured. Finally one member of The Steering Committee sent his own $1,000 check to reserve “The Wall”.

During this time the “Entertainment Department” which was so enthusiastic in the beginning did the following:
- Did not reserve “The Wall” or forward a down-payment
- Did not arrange for a fund raising concert
- Did not arrange for a “named” concert
- Did not arrange a meeting with other Villages Organizations
including Construction or whomever was throwing the
roadblocks in
- Could not get “Approval” for use of the Polo Field
The Entertainment Department finally responded that “The Wall” would be 200 feet deep and would cause damage that would require $21,000 in sod replacement. The Entertainment Department then proposed use of Colony Plaza. This area had the same problems as Mulberry Plaza only it did not have the use of the VA Clinic but it had an active McDonalds sitting right in the middle of the proposed site. The site also had an active shopping center, had only one road shared by cars and Golf Carts, little room for spectators, and lack of a convenient location for parade participants to disperse or get picked up.
A meeting was held with The Vendor and representatives of the Villages Commercial Property Management (“CPM”) to review the location. They asked questions directly to The Vendor regarding the wall and its potential damage to the area.

They were, told again that the Wall would sit on a 2 inch by 4 inch platform. The platform would be ABOVE ground on 2inch by 4 inch stakes driven 6 inches into the ground and placed every 3 feet for a distance of 150 feet in one direction and 150 feet in another. That with one good rainfall the ground would close up the holes (remember that the event would take place in June and Polo would not start until the Fall).

Subsequently CPM rejected this location with The Villages standard answer of “liability” concerns (remember the Buffalo). Since this had the same pitfalls as Mulberry Plaza then obviously that location would have been rejected for the same reason.

A series of e-mails had been sent to Barbara Vesco – Entertainment, Sonny Resmundo – Construction, and Mackie Mccabe – Hospitality requesting a meeting to review the installation and construction details associated with “The Wall” to make sure everyone understood the specifications and show them that there would be no damage to the Polo Field. NO RESPONSE.

The Villages Entertainment Department, The Villages Construction Department were again asked to relook at “The Walls” installation and speak directly to The Vendor so they would fully and completely understand that there would not be any damage to the Polo Field and that there would be no need for $21,000 for sod replacement, and again explaining that the Polo Field was the only viable location for this event. NO RESPONSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Death of The Villages Veterans Celebration and Display of The Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall
Since there was NO approval for use of the Polo Field, Mulberry Plaza, Colony Plaza or any other site within The Villages or any other alternate proposal forthcoming from The Developer or any of his organizations, The Villages Veterans Celebration has been cancelled. The Wall is not coming to the Villages.

Since it is quite obvious that nothing goes on within the Developers Organization without Mark Morse knowing about it then it is quite obvious that Mark Morse killed the Veterans Parade and Celebration and The Wall.

Was it because his employees failed to give him the full story, or because he wasn’t making any money from the Veterans Celebration, or a desire to ignore just to ignore those pesky residents who are always asking for something; perhaps the celebration did conflict with the graduation party, maybe it was arrogance, laziness or insensitivity by Mark's advisors?

It really doesn’t matter since if Mark Morse wanted the Veterans Celebration a way would have been found. If Mark Morse cared about bringing the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall to The Villages someone would have checked with The Vendor to fully understand its installation requirements. Maybe if Mark knew someone who was a Veteran, or one of his children was now serving in the Armed Forces his attitude might have been different.

TOGETHER WE CARE – DO THEY?