PIMA — Students at Pima High School have collaborated and presented their final design for a memorial to the 27 Pima men who gave their lives during World War II.
“We changed up the plaques, too. On your left would be the plaque with all the names, in the middle would be a bell and on the other side it was thanking the town for putting this together,” said Hanna Lofgreen, who designed the memorial with Analicia Sanchez.
The memorial will be located on town-owned land near the intersection of 300 South and U.S. Highway 70, and will feature benches, trees and greenery, and inscribed bricks that can be purchased in memory of any loved one who served.
Town Manager Sean Lewis said Mark Vining, owner of Vining Funeral Home and a Thatcher Town Councilman, has agreed to do the engraving at cost.
The Pima Town Council voted unanimously to move forward with one change, moving the names of the servicemen to the center of the memorial.
The loss of 27 Pima men in World War II accounted for 3 percent of the town’s population at the time, and was the greatest loss suffered by any community in the United States on a per capita basis.
