ALEDO, Ill. — A traveling Vietnam memorial wall is set up near the corner of Third Street NW and Third Avenue NW in Aledo this weekend.
It is the first time a traveling memorial has made a stop in Aledo in conjunction with the Rhubarb Fest event.
The replica is about 80 percent of the size of the national memorial in Washington, D.C. It is about 8 feet high in the center, and slopes down out to the edges.
The wall in Aledo stretches 360 feet, more than a football field in length. Volunteers needed to curve the memorial when they built it, because they did not have enough space for it to rest in a straight line, according to volunteer and organizer Steve Johnson.
"It's probably a once in a lifetime event for Mercer County," Johnson said. "We're 16,000 people in this county. You know, these traveling exhibits go to where there's multitude of people living in their community, so this is a big event."
Volunteers spent several hours on Thursday setting up the memorial.
While the wall is in Aledo in conjunction with Rhubarb Fest, organizers wanted to be a few blocks away from the event's center. Organizers made that decision on purpose, wanting to make the memorial a more solemn space, Johnson said.
There are more than 58,000 names on the wall, including some with ties to Mercer County, who died in Vietnam.
"I had a little bit of guilt and anger, so this is my way to say thank you to them for their service and for all they've done and in hopes we can all get some peace and rest and say thank you," Johnson said.
Since the wall is in town in conjunction with Rhubarb Fest this weekend, organizers will have shuttles to and from the memorial location.
There will be volunteers at the memorial site 24 hours per day through Sunday afternoon. Those volunteers can help you locate a specific name of a friend, family member or loved one.
There is an official closing ceremony at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The memorial will then be taken down at approximately 2:30 p.m., according to Johnson.