Volunteers near goal to rebuild Vilonia veterans museum after tornado

After midnight on April 28, Linda and Paul Hicks braved a lull between storms and drove the 5 miles from their home near Conway to Vilonia, which had just been wrecked by a EF4 tornado. They couldn't wait until dawn to see if the museum they founded had survived.

The Hickses drove along U.S. 64 into Vilonia as far as they could before the road became impassable. Then, they parked their Toyota Camry and walked the remaining quarter mile to the Museum of Veterans and Military History, climbing fences and navigating around debris and fallen trees.

When Linda Hicks arrived at the museum that night, she knew the two-story, 100-year-old structure was damaged beyond repair.

"The whole front of it was a gaping hole," she said. "It was ripped off of its foundation. All of the windows were knocked out. The roof was taken off. Everything inside was wet."

Linda, who comes from a long line of military veterans, established the museum in the small, white house on South College Street less than two years before the April tornado ripped it apart. That night, she and her husband spent four hours picking through the wreckage, pulling out mud-caked uniforms and weapons dating back to the Revolutionary War.

They saved most of the $100,000 in inventory, including a rare Russian Maxim machine gun used in both World Wars, but some items -- a Purple Heart, a WWI-era backpack, a gas mask, dog tags and letters between soldiers and their loved ones -- were casualties of the 200 mph winds and rain.

"It was so bad that night," Linda remembered. "It was so bad that slivers of glass and pieces of wood that were stuck in the uniforms were cutting our fingertips, and we were bleeding."

The Hickses filled their Toyota -- "you couldn't have fit a feather in it," she said -- and left before another storm hit at 4 a.m.

In the following days, the Hickses, museum board members and volunteers hauled 20 loads of artifacts to storage. Every so often, a Vilonia resident would stop by to return a canteen or flag found up to 2 miles away.

The house, which the museum was using at no cost thanks to a group of investors, was demolished May 1. The structure had served as a dormitory for the Arkansas Holiness College in the early 1900s and was later used as an orphanage.

"It tore my heart out," Linda said. "There was so much history there."

Linda never doubted that they would rebuild. She founded the museum in Vilonia, a town of 3,815 not 20 miles from Little Rock Air Force Base, to connect the large veteran population to the rest of the community. Since its opening in 2012, more than 5,000 people had visited the museum, which showcased items from every major conflict that the United States has been involved in.

The day after the tornado struck, Hicks began the process of restoring the museum. Now, three months later, she and her "museum brigade" are close to their goal.

In mid-June, those affiliated with the museum started a fundraising blitz. As of Wednesday, they had raised about $48,000, made up mostly of small donations from individuals and veterans organizations.

They're hoping to reach $50,000, the amount needed to break ground on a new facility, at a fundraiser Saturday.

The Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association is hosting a motorcycle ride, auction and raffle, starting at 9 a.m. Ride to Rebuild participants will meet at Gregory Polaris, 14106 Arkansas 107 in Jacksonville, and ride to the Vilonia Fire Department at 7 Bise St.

The museum staff will provide food, and the Freedom Warriors Riders Association will set up the fallen heroes memorial, a traveling exhibit honoring Arkansas soldiers who have died since the beginning of the Persian Gulf War.

Marty Gustafson, a Cabot man who helped organize the fundraiser, is hoping Saturday's event draws at least 100 people, each paying $10 to participate.

For the past two years, Gustafson and other members of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association staged fundraisers to benefit the museum, which runs as a nonprofit and is staffed by volunteers.

Gustafson, an Army and Air Force veteran, also donated a flight helmet to the museum's inventory.

"The displays were donated primarily by veterans here in Arkansas. That makes it extra special," he said. "It's just a great educational thing in the community. It's a way to pay tribute to veterans."

If the event brings the museum's total to $50,000, a groundbreaking ceremony will be held in the next couple of weeks, Linda Hicks said.

The new museum will be built at 53 North Mount Olive Road on 2 acres donated by a Vilonia resident. The $50,000, along with insurance coverage and donated labor, will provide a 40-by-60-foot structure with a tin roof and block walls that can withstand 220 mph winds. More money will be needed to furnish the facility's interior.

Hicks hopes to finish the new building by Nov. 8 -- three days before Veterans Day and about two years after the museum's original grand opening in 2012.

"I always thought we would be able to do this," Hicks said. "I knew it would be a battle, but I had no doubt we would get up and going."

Metro on 08/08/2014

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