TENINO, Wash. — A 9/11 memorial looking for a permanent home is heading east.
“If you guys don’t want it, then we’re going to find a place that’s going to want it,” said Dave Lewis before hitching the memorial to his pickup.
The piece features life-size depictions of people killed on 9/11 surrounding a piece of steel from the World Trade Center.
Lewis first saw the memorial last year at the Puyallup Fair, where designers raised money for the $80,000 project with the intention of placing it at the state Capitol in Olympia.
The Department of Enterprise Services, which oversees public displays at the Capitol campus, denied the group’s request.
A state official said the piece would be out of place on the campus since it marks an event of national significance. Other memorials in Olympia honor events in Washington or state residents who were killed in wars or serving the public.
After the designer got the rejection letter, John Jackson placed the memorial in his backyard in Tenino while he looked for a permanent location.
Lewis said he thinks he’ll have no problem finding a home for it on the state’s east side, where Lewis said people, “want to really be a part of the patriotic part of America.”
Lewis said he plans on taking the memorial to the Grand Coulee Dam for the Fourth of July. He also expects to show it off in Colville, Walla Walla and Spokane before featuring it in Hunters, Wash. at his hometown’s one-day fair.
Lewis said he expects it to draw crowds wherever he takes it.
“We have a piece of American history that’s going to endure forever,” said Lewis.
Lewis said anyone who might be interested in the memorial should email him at DGLdouble@gmail.com.
