Ray Tanner Supports First Responders Memorial Honoring 5 of Wagener's Fallen
Sneak Peek at First Responders Memorial Under Construction
“The First Responders memorial is one of the single greatest things happening in this area since I’ve been here,” Tanner said as he spoke to a crowd in excess of 350 at the Midlands First Responders Remembrance Memorial Fundraiser Dinner. “We have so many heroes, and in our world, we sometimes make mistakes on who our heroes really are,”
The Midlands First Responders Remembrance Memorial will honor the midlands firefighters, law officers, military men and women and medics who have given their lives in the line of duty since the 9/11 attack. The memorial will feature two large twisted beams taken from Ground Zero in NY and will be placed next to the convention center in the Vista, Columbia. Pelion stone carver, Ron Clamp of Memorial Designs has been commissioned to carve the monument.
The memorial will feature the names of first responders from the nine county SC Midlands area that have died since the 9/11 terrorist attack. The Wagener Salley area will have more first responders on the memorial than any other city in the nine county area. No other town has sacrificed more than the Wagener Salley area.
Fundraising continues for the memorial which should be unveiled 9/11/11, the tenth anniversary of the attack. A fundraising dinner was held Thursday night, 8/25/11, in Columbia with guest speaker Ray Tanner, two time national champion coach of the USC baseball team. WSHS graduate Tommy Sliker presented Coach Tanner with a special design he hand etched and then several of these designs were auctioned off to support the memorial. Here's a photo of the project when he first started:
Tommy works for Ron Clamp of Memorial Designs. Clamp is a world renowned master stone carver and Tommy carves for Clamp under the Memorial Designs flagship.
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Read more: Tanner Talks Real Heroes, The State