Editor’s note: This article was updated to include photo of the finished memorial. Last updated April 30 at 3:30 p.m. Lea este articulo en español aquí.
Clues: World War II, Town of Wendell and 33 names.
That was what Hollister resident Jim Gillio had to work with when he embarked on a quest to return a World War II memorial to its rightful place, or find out if it was possible.
When searching for “town of Wendell” on the internet, North Carolina pops up. So that’s where Gillio, a business owner and former Hollister City Council member and San Benito County supervisor, began, only to find out there were five towns with the same name in the United States.
Eventually, with the help of that town’s historical society, they matched the memorial to a town with a population of 900 in Massachusetts, which on April 3 accepted it as a donation.
“I could hear them reminiscing in the background,” Gillio said of the town’s governing body, known as a selectboard, discussing the surnames that appear on the memorial.
Gillio said he found the memorial while browsing Facebook Marketplace. Though he could track it back to an antique mall in Arizona, where the lister, Mountain View antique dealer Rebecca Hohmann bought it, he did not know how it got there.
Reluctantly taking credit for starting the process, Gillio highlighted all the work VFW Post 9242 has done. Gillio sought the help of VFW member Bernie Ramires, who he called a “master woodworker,” to restore it
“It’s a complete honor for me to do it,” Ramirez said. “I love restoring things and I’m looking forward to the finished product.”
In turn, Ramirez enlisted fellow VFW members Adam Mendolla, Brian Morse and Joe Ortiz to help him. Each took a task such as sanding, fixing the backing and restoring the eagle emblem.
“It’s a lot of work,” Ramirez said about restoring the eagle. “I’ve never had enough patience to do what Adam did.”
The memorial is almost 3 feet wide and over 5 feet in height. The frame is made out of redwood and the backing is pine. The names of the soldiers are in gold lettering in individual wooden name tags on a black background.
The latter, Ramirez said, is going to be the most difficult part as several names are unreadable. However, Gillio said a brass plaque memorial was tracked down that appears to have the same names.
“With that information we can make sure we can match them up,” Gillio said.
Pieces of the memorial have been receiving attention in Ramirez’s garage. Ramirez started working on it the day Gillio dropped it off. On April 10, he was staining the frame while singing and dancing to some rock ‘n’ roll.
Ramirez said the memorial is expected to be completed sometime in the week of April 15.
Speaking about the VFW, Gillio said, “All the community events they do, I’m super impressed by them. Our local VFW is one of the more active in the area. Anything we as a community can do to support them and help them, perhaps raise money, to take care of what they need to do I think would be great.”
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