ABOVE: A statue depicting a modern day wounded soldier and a nurse which the Martin County Veterans Memorial Committee is currently fundraising for. The statue will be added to the memorial on Winnebago Avenue in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT– Nearly a decade after beginning the project, the Martin County Veterans Memorial (MCVM) committee is still putting final touches at the site in Fairmont. Currently, the group is fundraising for another bronze statue. This one depicts a modern day military nurse and wounded soldier.

Chuck Mixson, a long time board member of the committee, shared that there are four statues in the front including a VFW and American Legion representative presenting a flag to a widow and young child. There are more statues in the back of the memorial including a WWI and WWII, Korea, and present day Iraq soldier.

“It’s basically a patrol from every major conflict we’ve been in,” Mixson said.

The memorial also includes the outline of a ship and a Navy statue, as well as a bell and a sign.

As a whole, the memorial includes many well thought-out additions, including flags from every branch of the military and names of local veterans, including MIAs, POWs and KIAs. It also has a Cobra 327 helicopter which was dedicated in 2019. The newest statue will be another intentional addition.

“It’s a wounded soldier with a military nurse attending to him. You can see by the look on his face that he’s in pain and the nurse is there tending to him,” Mixson said. “What we’re doing here is honoring all Purple Heart recipients.”

He explained that if you’re wounded in battle, you’re eligible for a Purple Heart and if you’re killed in action, your widow or family is given a Purple Heart.

“It’s an important part and can be given to any branch of the service, a soldier or sailor or to the family,” Mixson said.

He said the wounded soldier represents those people and the nurse is honoring the people who take care of the soldiers.

“We really wanted to honor the women in the military so that’s why it’s a woman. It could be a medic in the field, anything. Those nurses, like in Vietnam or Iraq… there’s a lot of guys living because of those gals. A lot of brave women,” Mixson said.

This statute is one that the committee has wanted to do from the start but got put to the side while other aspects of the project were tackled. Now that it’s actively being pursued, Mixson said it will likely be the final addition to the site.

Like the other statues, this one will come from Brodin Studios out of Kimball, MN. The most recent statue that was installed at the site was about a year ago.

“We’re figuring about 120,000 grand to get it all complete. These statues are not cheap,” Mixson said.

On Tuesday Martin County Commissioner Richard Koons presented the board of commissioners with a Memorandum of Understanding between the county and Martin County Veterans Memorial committee to have the statue placed at the Martin County Veterans Memorial site.

“It’s been a long drawn out thing… the Veterans Memorial board did commit to buying it at a special meeting last Monday. It will be here by Labor Day of (20)26,” Koons said.

He said that there were some items in the purchase agreement, such as who is paying for it, that were cleared up with help by County Attorney Taylor McGowan.

“We’re the owner of the property, we’re not the purchaser, but the MOU further clarifies that any of these items that would be purchased for the memorial are the financial responsibly of the actual Veterans Memorial organization itself and that we’re not liable for any of those purchases,” McGowan said.

However, once they’re installed, the county would accept them as donations. The cost of the statue is $109,000.

The board approved the MOU and authorized the purchase agreement.

Mixson said that since the committee decided to go forward with the statue, a generous amount of donations have been coming in.

“Just this past week, I’ve gotten $9,000 in donations and a $750 donation from someone who doesn’t want to be recognized,” Mixson said.

He said the committee is brainstorming other potential fundraising projects to help raise money for the additional statue.

“There’s a lot of things we have to do but hopefully we can raise the money. We have $50,000 already and are trying to raise an additional $70,000 to pay for it,” Mixson said.

To learn more information, or to donate, visit mcvm.org.