Bench destroyed by vandals replaced at Niagara Falls Veterans Memorial
May 23—In the words of Stan Zimmerman, Niagara Falls Veterans Memorial Commission vice-chairman, "The timing was impeccable."
Thursday morning, just days before the Memorial Day holiday, a crew from Stone Art Memorial Company arrived and installed four, new, solid granite benches at the Falls Veterans Memorial in Hyde Park. One bench will serve as a replacement for a bench destroyed in an act of vandalism in July 2022, while the other three will be additions to the ever-evolving memorial.
"It was a long process," Zimmerman said of replacing the vandalized resting spot. "But it was very exciting to get it done."
On July 17, 2022, still-unidentified vandals are believed to have used a sledgehammer to shatter an original marble bench at the memorial site. The bench was reduced to a pile of rubble and could not be repaired.
The bench had been donated by the members of the American Legion John J. Welch Post 381 on Niagara Avenue. It was the only one of four original benches at the memorial site dedicated to all the branches of the United States military.
Zimmerman called the discovery of the pile of marble that had once been the bench, "a gut punch."
"I just didn't ever expect anybody to do anything like that at this monument," he said.
Three other original marble benches remain at the memorial site along with the four new granite additions.
In addition to the multi-service branch bench, one of the new benches honors members of the U.S. Air Force. It was paid for the the Avdoian Family, former residents of the Falls, who now live in Arizona.
Several members of the Avdoian family have served in the Air Force, including a son who is serving now in Korea.
A bench honoring members of the Coast Guard was paid for by the Basil Ford auto dealership in the Falls. And a bench to honor veterans of the Vietnam War was provided by the family of David Carpenter. Carpenter, who Zimmerman says "passed away a few years ago," was a Vietnam veteran.
"We hope people will come to the memorial this weekend," Zimmerman said. "And see the new additions."
The memorial commission previously said that Tom Deal, owner of Deal Realty, Rico Liberale, vice president of Regional Environmental Demolition, Inc., and local hotel owner Frank Strangio raised the $2,700 needed to replace the vandalized bench.
The memorial commission oversaw the design and construction of the $1.7 million Veterans Memorial, which is the largest granite monument outside of Washington, D.C. The memorial recognizes the names of 3,000 local military veterans and 463 soldiers from Niagara Falls who were killed in action.
Zimmerman said the commission was told that the granite memorial will "will last a thousand years." The new benches should last just as long.
"Why the (marble bench) got destroyed, we'll never know," Zimmerman said. "But a lot of people in the community stepped up to make this happen."
