For Immediate Release

July 14, 2010

SAN ANTONIO SPURS OWNER ISSUES A $1 MILLION CHALLENGE TO TEXAS GROUPS RAISING MONEY FOR THE EDUCATION CENTER AT THE WALL

Washington, D.C. – San Antonio Spurs owner Peter M. Holt today challenged Texas residents to raise funds: “Raise a million and I’ll match it.” Holt has promised to match funds raised in the effort to build the Education Center at The Wall up to a value of $1 million.

The Education Center at The Wall is a facility being built near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. that will put faces to the names on The Wall, teach visitors about their lives and celebrate the values embodied by all of America’s service members.

“Those of us who served in Vietnam will never forget the faces of our brothers who fought and died beside us. I strongly believe we should put faces with the names on the granite wall,” said Holt. “We also need to honor the values of military service and its importance to this great democracy of ours.”

Holt is the CEO of Holt Companies, whose holdings include the largest Caterpillar dealership in the United States. He is a Vietnam veteran himself, having served two years in the U.S. Army, including one tour in Vietnam. He was awarded the Silver Star, three Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart.

Holt served as the chairman of the campaign to build the Education Center for a year and continues to take an active role on the leadership team. This matching grant is his way of energizing the grassroots campaign to gather photos of those who made the ultimate sacrifice and raise money in the state of Texas, where the grassroots campaign kicked off in April.

“The Education Center has benefited immensely from Peter Holt’s leadership, and we are glad that he is taking an active role in energizing the people from his state to help us build this unique learning center,” said Jan C. Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), the group that is leading the effort to build the Center.

“Peter Holt has served his country twice: in Vietnam, and now in helping us find new ways to remember the people we lost in Vietnam and in all wars,” Scruggs added.

Under the matching grant program, when an individual, community group, veterans organization or other civic entity in Texas raises money for the Education Center, Holt will match that amount, until his total contribution reaches $1 million.

Texas was the first state to pledge its support of the Education Center, when Gov. Rick Perry joined the leadership team in November 2008. Since then, 22 other governors have followed his lead and pledged their support for the Center.

On April 14, Texas officially kicked off its grassroots campaign to build the Education Center with an event at the DFW National Cemetery, near where two Texans whose names are on The Wall are buried.

“We owe it to those who gave their lives, those who loved them, to do everything in our power to make sure that this Education Center becomes a reality,” said Gov. Perry at the event.

Overall, there are 3,416 individuals from Texas whose names are on The Wall. The Texas leadership, including Gov. Perry and Jay Kimbrough, state coordinator for the Texas grassroots campaign, has vowed to gather photos for each of them in tandem with their efforts to raise funds for the Center. With Peter Holt’s matching grant challenge, the state of Texas is likely to raise a significant amount of money for the effort.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Holt. “This project is important to the future of our country, as well as to me personally. My dedication to complete this project goes far beyond a million; I want all of Texas—and, indeed, all of America—to know and remember.”

The Education Center at The Wall was envisioned to help put faces to the thousands of names on The Wall and to educate future generations about the men and women who gave their lives for their country. A focal point in the Center will be a “wall of faces” showing the pictures of the more than 58,000 whose names are on The Wall on their birthdays. In September 2009, VVMF launched a National Call for Photos to gather all of those pictures. As the grassroots campaign rolls out in Texas and other states, VVMF will ask community members to share their photos of those whose names are on The Wall.

In addition, the Center will also feature a gallery of some of the more than 100,000 items left in tribute at The Wall since 1982 and a timeline of events during the Vietnam War.  Around $85 million will be needed to build the Center.  Nearly $25 million in pledges has been raised, including the lead gift from Time Warner. VVMF has received donations from corporations, organizations, veterans groups and individuals. For information about the Education Center, visit www.buildthecenter.org. Follow the progress in Texas as they work their way up to meet Holt’s $1 million challenge at: www.vvmf.org/Texas.

Established in 1979, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., promoting healing and educating about the impact of the Vietnam War. Authorized by Congress, its most recent initiative is building The Education Center at The Wall, an underground facility near the Memorial that is designed to add faces to all the names on the Wall and tell the stories of those who served. Other Memorial Fund initiatives include educational programs for students and teachers, a traveling Wall replica that honors our nation's veterans and a humanitarian and mine-action program in Vietnam.

For more information, contact:
Lisa Gough, VVMF
(202) 393-0090, ext. 109		 In Texas: Jay Kimbrough
(979) 450-9400


         

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