The Grinnell Rotary Club held its regular weekly meeting on Tuesday, August 25, 2026. Following the opening of the meeting, members shared good news and club business. The speakers for this week’s meeting were Gary and Marsha Hash from the “Wall That Heals” event which took place at BGM Football Field in Brooklyn, Iowa from July 30 through August 2, 2026. Gary Hash began his comments by telling the attendees he is 80 years old. Every veteran has a story and Gary’s goes way, way back, starting the Vietnam draft in 1966.
Over the years in his efforts to keep his story alive, Gary wrote letters to his senator who wrote him back and said a committee was working on it. This had been with him for 50 years and he still wanted to do something for the community of Brooklyn to keep the story alive. So he did a flag display at the Brooklyn Cemetery and the Catholic Cemetery. Alex Wehrle assisted with the flag display downtown by procuring the flags & flagpoles.
Then last year Rusty Clayton asked Gary if he wanted to go to Nevada where the moving wall, “The Wall That Heals”, was on display. It was decided to bring “The Wall” to Brooklyn.
A committee was formed and each person did their part. Gary said “Everybody did their job, nobody complained, nobody had issues, and then we just got it done.”
Marsha Hash continued the presentation. Gary, Tom Ryan and Rusty Clayton were instrumental in getting this started here along with the American Legion in Brooklyn. The application was sent and then $12,000 was raised. Fortunately, the committee had very good grant writers as well as many donations which resulted in enough funds being raised for the project.
The traveling Wall is a three-quarter scale of the Vietnam Veterans Wall in Washington, D.C. There are 58,318 names on the Wall. It is 328 feet from end to end, 85 feet deep, 125 degree angle.
In Brooklyn it took 73 volunteers only 4 hours to erect the wall on Wednesday July 29th. The display was open 24 hours a day starting July 30th with 200 volunteers manning the display.
Benches for seating were borrowed from Bayer and the town of Brooklyn. When it came time to take the Wall down it was suggested that it would take 30 people to take down the Wall – and once again-73 turned up!
An escort of the motorcycles was arranged. Just under 200 made up the procession. Each motorcycle was given a dash plaque and a meal afterwards in Brooklyn honoring them with about 150 in attendance. All together with motorcycles and the vehicles there were approximately 300 people who participated in the escort. On Wednesday night there was a training session for all of the volunteers and T-shirts & water bottle Koozies were handed out. On Thursday night, the “Welcome Home” program was held with approximately 300 people in attendance. The keynote speaker was Captain William Hawk Albright.
On Friday night the “Light the night” event was held honoring veterans who have suffered from the effects of agent orange. 240 candles were passed out with many people not getting one.
On Saturday there was a free concert and the Star Spangled Banner concert was given downtown by the Iowa Military Veterans Band.
Sunday, August 6 there was a good turnout for the closing ceremony followed by the dismantling of the “Wall that Heals” by volunteers
Gary and Marsha Hash’s presentation appears on the Rotary Club of Grinnell website in the section labeled “Stories, August 25, 2026.” Grinnell Rotary Website https://portal.clubrunner.ca/1642
If you are interested in learning more about service to the community, membership, and the power of networking, come visit us at the Rotary Club of Grinnell. The club meets every Tuesday evening at 5:30 at West Side Family Restaurant. Peter Jackson
