Columbus Monthly Special Section: National Veterans Memorial and Museum

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FINDING OPPORTUNITY IN ADVERSITY

SEPT. 18, 2020 – MARCH 14, 2021

YEAR TWO AT THE NATIONAL VETERANS Memorial and Museum has been one of growth, continued integration in both our local community and the broader Veteran community, team development, learning, innovation, resilience and opportunity.

We achieved numerous firsts—opened our first traveling exhibitions, completed divestment and established new governance boards as a nonprofit, forged new partnerships with Veteran service organizations and others devoted to telling Veterans’ stories, and collaborated with a variety of businesses and cultural organizations. Our household members increased by 700 percent and expanded to every state in the country. We gained new corporate sponsors and donors who have invested in the programs and educational opportunities we created to impact the lives of those who served and share those experiences with members, students and guests.

After the success of “So Ready for Laughter: A Night of Comedy,” featuring military Veteran comedians, there was anticipation for an exciting spring and summer season. No one could have known that just a few days later, we would all be facing a transformative moment in our nation’s history with COVID-19. After leadership determined our best course of action was to temporarily close our physical doors on March 13, we also developed an operations order to “survive then thrive” by electing to preserve staff jobs and bring the museum to guests. Our new theme became, “We are open, strong, connecting and impacting lives.”

Clayton Christensen’s business theory of disruptive innovation couldn’t

PRESENTED BY

300 W. Broad St. Columbus, OH 43215 nationalvmm.org

SUPPORTED BY

PRESIDENT & CEO Lt. General Michael Ferriter (U.S. Army, Retired) CHIEF OF STAFF Colonel William J. Butler (U.S. Army, Retired) VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION Jeff Nutter

have been more applicable for our team.

As a young, start-up organization, our team’s “can-do” attitude enabled us to pivot and take our programs and events to the world virtually in a matter of weeks. Technology has allowed us to reach and impact 60 times the audience we could previously in person. Each of our programs, from Rally Point and Veterans Voices to several special speakers who addressed pandemic-specific issues, have received nearly 50,000 views from across the country and overseas.

Thanks to our board, leaders and staff—and especially to our generous donors, sponsors and members— the National Veterans Memorial and Museum is proof that innovation and creativity thrive in the face of adversity.

Please join us as we honor all Veterans with virtual events including a run/ walk (Nov. 1-22) and our Veterans Day Ceremony on Nov. 11, when Montel Williams, U.S. Navy Veteran and host of The Montel Williams Show, and Bruce Thorn, U.S. Army Veteran and president and CEO of Big Lots, will share their stories.

Our mission to Honor, Connect, Inspire and Educate has never wavered and has never been more important.

Sincerely and Hooah!

Lt. General Michael Ferriter U.S. Army (Retired) CEO and President, National Veterans Memorial and Museum VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVANCEMENT Candace Brady MUSEUM DIRECTOR Andy Cloyd ACTING ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Tamara Brown COVER PHOTO BY Infinite Impact

All photos courtesy National Veterans Memorial and Museum unless otherwise noted.

More than a Museum is published by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © Gannett Co., Inc. 2020. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited.

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62 E. Broad St. P.O. Box 1289 Columbus, Ohio 43216 614-888-4567

COLUMBUS SITE MANAGER Alan Miller PUBLISHER Ray Paprocki PROJECT MANAGER Emma Frankart Henterly PRODUCTION/ DESIGN DIRECTOR Craig Rusnak ART DIRECTOR Alyse Pasternak

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Clockwise from left: Tracie Hunter and Elizabeth Suter, WWII Beyond the Call, with WWII Veteran Dan McBride; Gen. Colin L. Powell provides Memorial Day remarks; and Florence Fattig, U.S. Army Nurse Corps, courtesy of Witness to War.

FORGING LOCAL LINKS, EXPANDING NATIONAL TIES WHEN THE NATIONAL VETERANS Memorial and Museum opened two autumns ago, Central Ohioans responded with reverence and enthusiasm.

Without community-wide support, the facility honoring Veterans of each service branch and every era would likely never have been constructed on the spot once occupied by the Franklin County Veterans Memorial.

“Quite frankly, if it weren’t for the generosity of the people of Franklin County and business leaders here in town, this museum wouldn’t be here,” says chief of staff Col. William J. Butler, U.S. Army (Retired).

The 53,000-square-foot structure salutes Veterans through ongoing exhibits, stirring galleries and special events in an atmosphere both majestic and serene.

Since its inception, Central Ohioans have embraced the institution as part of the fabric of the area. It was the site of Columbus’ 9/11 commemoration for two consecutive years and has hosted everything from Red Cross blood drives to the annual Experience Arnold gala for After-School All-Stars Ohio—itself a

nod to the original location of the Arnold Sports Festival at the Franklin County Veterans Memorial.

Examples abound of such bridgebuilding. Last fall, the Harmony Project— a chorus comprising singers of every background and skill level—temporarily turned the Great Hall into its rehearsal facility. “It was really nice to have several hundred singers in the museum,” Butler says. “It would quite literally shake the building when they were singing.”

Yet the National Veterans Memorial and Museum also seeks to establish links far beyond the physical boundaries of Franklin County. “The reality is, many Veterans are never going to have the opportunity or the ability to come to Columbus to visit their museum,” says Butler.

The coronavirus pandemic hastened staff’s efforts to reach Veterans regardless of their age, health or location. Before COVID-19, Rally Point events—named for a term referring to an agreed-upon safe haven for those in combat—were in-person meetings where Veterans or supporters could gather to hear from representatives of

Veteran service organizations, a Gold Star parent or a combat Veteran with an inspiring story.

When the physical building was shut down in the early months of the pandemic, leaders created virtual Rally Points with far greater reach, even extending to overseas military bases. “It really allowed us to break out of Columbus, Ohio,” Butler says.

Ceremonies have gone virtual, too, including commemorations of Vietnam Veterans Day, Memorial Day and the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII. The latter had live participants from the Netherlands and France.

“We always do a hotwash afterward to say, ‘OK, how’d it go? What did we plan to do? What did we actually do?

How can we do it better?’ ” Butler says. “We’ve gotten a much more professional-looking production capacity as we’ve learned.”

Butler adds that the innovation is likely to continue: “We may have 50 people in the Great Hall for an event, and 2,000 people who are also able to view it from across the country.”

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A YEAR IN REVIEW THE NATIONAL VETERANS MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM opened in 2018 as the nation’s first and only facility dedicated to honoring and telling the stories of all Veterans from all military branches in both wartime and peace. Honor its Oct. 27 anniversary by reflecting on highlights from its second year:

CONNECTING VETERANS WITH THEIR COMMUNITIES Rally Point meetings brought Veterans, their families and Veteran-friendly organizations together in physical, and later virtual, spaces. The shift to a virtual format saw average views rise 60 times to 3,000 per event.

Topics included Maintaining Health in Difficult Circumstances, Navigating the Current Job Market, Resilience in Times of Stress and Navigating Life’s Battlefields.

Speakers included Jennifer (Loredo) Ballou, U.S. Army (Retired), Gold Star spouse and life coach, and Josh Mantz, U.S. Army (Retired), a leading expert on psychological trauma and moral injury.

A Rally Point event

HONORING VETERANS VETERANS DAY 2019 The Memorial and Museum was the terminus for Columbus’ Veterans Day Parade, hosted a 5-mile race that ended on its roof, and conducted a ceremony to honor Veterans and those who never came home.

NATIONAL VIETNAM WAR VETERANS DAY 2020 The first virtual event of the pandemic was created in partnership with Witness to War, which provided video stories from Vietnam Veterans with an introduction from Lt. General Michael Ferriter.

MEMORIAL DAY 2020 Virtual opportunities to remember fallen servicemembers included a virtual run/ walk featuring more than 700 participants from across the world and a virtual ceremony featuring guest speakers Gen. 4

Colin L. Powell, secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie and Travis Manion Foundation president Ryan Manion. LandGrant Brewing Co. also re-released its Four Pillars pale ale.

75TH ANNIVERSARY OF VICTORY IN EUROPE DAY Another partnership with Witness to War honored VE Day by sharing stories of servicemembers who risked everything for our freedom.

75TH ANNIVERSARY OF VICTORY IN JAPAN DAY VJ Day was commemorated by a conversation among World War II Veterans Dan McBride (Army) and David Greene (Marine Corps) with Tracie Hunter, an Emmy Award-winning documentarian and founder/president of WWII Beyond The Call.

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Josh Mantz Jennifer Ballou

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Jesse Iwuji

IMPACTING LIVES VEC 001 and the Certificate in Public and Nonprofit Leadership for Veterans both made their debuts (see Page 7).

The Memorial and Museum divested and established new governance boards.

Opened museum gift shop.

INSPIRING EXPERIENCES VETERANS VOICES These events feature a Veteran or panel of individuals with a unique historical perspective or experience. In-museum topics included the 26th anniversary of the Battle of Mogadishu and a presentation from Navy Veteran and NASCAR driver Jesse Iwuji.

Over the last six months, virtual events included Korea: 70 Years Later with Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, U.S. Army (Retired) and former commander of U.S. Forces Korea, United Nations Command and Sgt. Maj. Thomas P. Payne, in his first interview after receiving the Medal of Honor on Sept. 11.

TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS The museum’s first traveling exhibit, The Greatest Legislation, focused on the creation of the G.I. Bill in November and December 2019. In January, So Ready for Laughter: The Legacy of Bob Hope opened featuring stories and artifacts from Hope’s decades of entertainment in the USO. We The People: Portraits of Veterans in America became the third national traveling exhibition in September, featuring 50 large-scale watercolor portraits of Veterans in their civilian lives.

During “So Ready for Laughter: A Night of Comedy,” comedians and military Veterans Thom Tran and Leslie Battle entertained guests while Bob Hope, aka Bill Johnson, emceed.

Virtual event videos received more than 42,000 views on Facebook.

Social media accounts reached approximately 2.5 million viewers each month.

Community events included Arnold’s After-School All Stars, Columbus’ 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony, concerts by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the unveiling of the Ohio BMV Purple Heart license plate, Secretary of State Frank LaRose introducing a program calling Veterans to serve once more, this time as election poll workers, and four Red Cross blood drives, where 91 donors impacted 273 lives.

Honored museum guests included Gen. Colin L. Powell and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Oct. 1, 2019, and Speaker Newt Gingrich and White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett on Jan. 28, 2020.

So Ready for Laughter: The Legacy of Bob Hope

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Left, Children writing letters to Veterans; top right, the VEC 001; bottom right, OSU’s Veterans certificate program

LESSONS FOR ALL WHEN THE NATIONAL VETERANS Memorial and Museum was created, one of its four foundational pillars was—and remains today—to educate others about the history and value of service.

“We began our second year with a mindset that you can really learn a lot from our Veterans, and by doing that, you honor their service,” says Andy Cloyd, museum director.

To that end, the facility last fall introduced VEC 001, conceptualized by Cloyd and public programs manager Stacey Queen, built by partners at The Idea Foundry and funded by a generous grant from Battelle. The remote-controlled Veteran Education Carrier “looks like some sort of experimental military vehicle that was dropped off via parachute from the Pentagon,” Cloyd says with a laugh. It can roam the building and is equipped with a video monitor, iPads and pop-out drawers containing artifacts for hands-on learning.

COVID-19 scuttled the vehicle’s grand debut, but smaller VEC 002 units are in the works, Cloyd says, with plans to deploy them to confer6

ences, schools and more. The coronavirus pandemic also fast-tracked the museum and memorial’s plans to offer virtual tours for students from area schools. Virtual tours for students start this month.

The memorial and museum’s educational mission doesn’t end with high school. In January, it debuted a master’s-level certificate program in public and nonprofit leadership, tailored specifically for Veterans, in partnership with Ohio State University’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs.

“As a recently transitioned Veteran, the NVMM [leadership certificate] class taught me how to navigate my new corporate landscape and how to best apply the leadership skills that I honed in the military to this new world,” says Greg Barbiaux. Barbiaux retired from 20 years of service in the Coast Guard in 2018 and completed the course this year. “The best part of the program was that the teaching came not just from the accomplished professors who taught the class, but also from the perspectives of my classmates.”

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Looking to the future, staff at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum are excited to continue developing a partnership with WOSU, which received a grant to catalog recordings made in the facility’s Share Your Story booth.

In the booth, visitors over the last two years have recorded clips detailing their experiences as Veterans or Veteran supporters. The cataloged recordings will be shared with middle school teachers, who can help students search, listen to and create projects based on them.

Of course, virtual education will remain a core component of the memorial and museum’s outreach through the pandemic and beyond.

“When COVID came, we closed our doors physically, but we didn’t stop working,” says Cloyd. “We said, ‘How can we pivot and start reaching people virtually? How can we get to them if they can’t come to us?’ It all comes back to our mission and who we are as a national museum in Columbus. Now, we know that we can reach people in San Antonio and Detroit and Baltimore and Kansas City and beyond.”

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THE SUPPORT OF A NATION “IT HAS BEEN A REWARDING experience to honor Veterans through our innovative exhibits and programming while also working to build diverse funding streams for long-term financial health,” says Candace Brady, vice president of advancement for the National Veterans Memorial and Museum. In addition to ticket sales, the nonprofit is funded through individual gifts, a membership program, special events like weddings and corporate gatherings, purchase of memorial benches, support from its Foundation Board, grants, sponsorships and philanthropic events—all organized by Brady’s team.

Among the most notable revenue sources, Brady notes, is the membership program.

“In the past 12 months, our Inaugural Member households have increased by nearly 700 percent, thanks to our first nationwide membership drive,” she notes.

Those members hail from all 50 U.S. states and even two foreign countries, and Veterans, who receive free admission to the facilities, account for 51 percent of members. Inaugural Members, who have committed to give a fixed amount over one to two years, receive such benefits as unlimited admission, exhibition

previews, private tours and more. In fact, members were the first to be welcomed back to the memorial and museum on June 23, after a months-long closure necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As Inaugural Members of the National Veterans Memorial and Museum, we have learned a great deal about our modern-day Veteran heroes. As a result, we have gained a passion for sharing Veterans’ stories,” say Tim and Peggy Kolodziej. Together, they have been Inaugural Members since 2018. “We believe one way we can help support NVMM in living its mission is through membership and participation in programs that impact the current circumstances our Veterans face.”

Visit NationalVMM.org/membership for more information on becoming an Inaugural Member.

Equally worthy of praise, Brady adds, are the many corporate partnerships and sponsorships that Central Ohio businesses have engaged in. For example, Franklinton neighbor Land-Grant Brewing Co. created a commemorative beer called Four Pillars Pale Ale; a percentage of the beer’s sales go back to support the memorial and museum. And Greenswell Foundation organized the inaugural

Veterans Day 5 Mile Run & Walk, which included more than 600 runners, in 2019 and collaborated with the National Veterans Memorial and Museum on its first virtual run/walk this past Memorial Day weekend. The May 2020 event saw more than 700 participants from 36 states, plus bases in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, who participated to honor our fallen servicemembers.

The memorial and museum’s newness translates to many opportunities for novel experiences, even as the facility looks to begin its third year of operation.

“It is exciting to be part of all of our ‘firsts,’ from our inaugural board meetings to our first point-of-sale donation campaign with Big Lots this past Memorial Day, which yielded more than $1.4 million in donations from customers nationwide who added $1, $2 or $5 to their transactions,” says Brady. “I am very appreciative of all the support we’ve received from all of our partners, both local and coast to coast. This tremendous support furthers our mission to honor, connect, inspire and educate, and to spread word of the resiliency of our nation’s heroes and their families, not only in Central Ohio but also the national community.”

Left to right, Jonica Armstrong, Big Lots; Bruce Thorn, Big Lots; Lt. General Michael Ferriter, National Veterans Memorial and Museum; Candace Brady, National Veterans Memorial and Museum; Jeremy Ball, Big Lots; inset, the commemorative coin given to Inaugural Members

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300 W. BROAD ST. COLUMBUS, OH 43215 NATIONALVMM.ORG

While the National Veterans Memorial and Museum received national museum status in 2018, it is an unfunded 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

We thank all of our members, donors and sponsors for their generous support.

AEP AUSA Battelle Big Lots, Inc. CAS CDDC Central Ohio Transit Authority Columbus Foundation Lane Aviation Corporation Nationwide Network For Good NiSource Ohio Dept. of Amvets Service Foundation Ohio Health San Francisco CrossFit USAA Veterans Of Foreign Wars Ohio Charities

BECOME AN INAUGURAL MEMBER AT NATIONALVMM.ORG/MEMBERSHIP