VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL FUND UNVEILS NEW WEBSITE DEDICATED TO PRESERVING THE WALL'S LEGACY
Interactive Website Combines The Virtual Wall, Teach Vietnam

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 23, 2003 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund this month unveiled its new website dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and all who served in America’s longest war, announced Jan C. Scruggs, the Memorial Fund’s Founder & President.

The new site, located at www.vvmf.org, combines many popular sections from the Memorial Fund’s three former sites – The Virtual Wall, Teach Vietnam and the previous Memorial Fund website. The unified website was made possible through generous grants from the New York Stock Exchange and Quaker.

“The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is indebted to the New York Stock Exchange and PepsiCo, Inc. for helping us take this innovative step forward in the technology arena,” Scruggs said. “By blending our three previous websites into one unified site, we will be able to provide the veterans and education communities and the general public with greater information in a more accessible format. We are excited about our integrated website and are confident that our visitors will enjoy the expanded visitor experience.”

Visitors will continue to be able to leave text, photograph and audio remembrances for the more than 58,000 U.S. servicemembers who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam War. The Virtual Wall section features more than 50,000 text remembrances from friends and loved ones of those whose names are inscribed on The Wall. In addition, The Virtual Wall is working to expand its 9,000-photograph archive of those who were killed or remain missing from the Vietnam War. Through its two-year-old Put a Face with a Name nationwide campaign, the Memorial Fund is collecting a picture for each of the 58,000 names on The Wall to be archived on its website. It also hopes to make the photographs part of the planned Vietnam Veterans Memorial Visitor Center.

For more than three years, the Memorial Fund has been working with Members of Congress, veterans organizations and educators to pass legislation allowing for an underground educational facility to be built on the Memorial’s two-acre site. The Senate bill (S.1076) passed in July 2003 and the House legislation (H.R.1442) continues to move forward.

In addition to The Virtual Wall, the new interactive website also features downloadable versions of the Memorial Fund’s award-winning secondary school curriculum, Echoes From The Wall: History, Learning and Leadership through the Lens of the Vietnam War Era, as well as other valuable resources to assist teachers in educating students about the war and its legacy. Additionally, the site features the latest news and information about the Memorial and Memorial Fund programs and activities.

Prior to the unification, the Memorial Fund received more than 150,000 visitors to its three websites each month. By creating a single site, the organization hopes to harness the momentum generated by the multiple audiences of its previous websites into one unique venue where visitors can experience the Memorial and learn about the Memorial Fund’s mission of honoring, healing and educating, Scruggs said.

Dedicated on November 13, 1982, the Memorial was built to honor all who served with the U.S. Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. It has become an international symbol of healing that has helped bring together those who stood on opposing sides during one of the most divisive periods in American history. The Wall continues to be the most visited memorial in the nation's capital with more than four million visitors each year.

Established in 1979, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is the non-profit organization authorized by Congress to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Today, it has developed a series of outreach programs dedicated to preserving the legacy of The Wall, to promoting healing and to educating about the impact of the Vietnam War.

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