Bundle 1, What I Know

I've spent the last couple days thinking about parks around my town. I had some sort of vague idea about an event held at a park (Ballard Park does a lot of this sort of thing in the summer, but I didn't want to copy directly from their calendar of events). I asked my younger sister and she suggested using Braga park which is right down the street from my house. She told me it was actually named after a soldier who died in Vietnam (J. Paul Braga Jr.). She said he was fairly young when he was killed in battle.

I went down to the park to see if there was any kind of information on Braga (like a placard) but there was only a sign reading "J. Paul Braga, Jr. Memorial Field" in large white letters. My sister said the Newport Daily News had featured an article on the fallen soldier within the past year or so and that's how she know about it. I was mildly disconcerted that the park featured no information about the man it takes its name from.

The memorial would be on the left as you entered the park*

 The idea behind my proposed bundle would be to erect a Vietnam Memorial dedicated to the soldiers who fought and perhaps died in The Vietnam Crisis from 1964-1975. This memorial would also feature a placard with information about the life of J. Paul Braga, Jr. My four pieces would be:
1. a letter to the editor about why the park should install a memorial for Braga/Vietnam soldiers
2. a proposal/action plan outlining the necessary measures for funding and installing such a memorial
3. the placard about J. Paul Braga, Jr. (to be erected next to the memorial)
4. a poster for the celebratory unveiling of the memorial (or possibly a fundraiser for the memorial?), featuring a concert on the park lawn with Vietnam-era music played by local bands.

A memorial like this does not--to my knowledge--exist in Newport. The only war memorials that are erected are in front of city hall. WWII and WWI have very large stone monuments, however, Vietnam only has a small square of granite in the ground with a bronze plaque. Although the list of deceased soldiers is significantly shorter than the world wars, I feel like there should be something even better put in place. The park is such a beautiful and often used area: there's a playground, a basketball court, a soccer field (which doubles as a lacrosse field), baseball diamond used by little league, as well as a picnic area under the trees.

What I need to further research is Braga's biography (interview opportunities?), costs of statues/gravemarker type memorial stones, and possible bands that could play at the concert on the lawn.

Braga has a large lawn, perfect for a blanket/lawn chair style concert

*

* Both photos taken from Newport Patch