The HEARTS Veterans Museum of Texas is officially open at it new location.
The museum’s grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremonies were held on Veterans Day — an appropriate time since the museum features exhibits on military veterans from all wars and all U.S. military branches.
The 12,000 suare-foot museum off state Highway 75 North is recognized as the only one of its type in Texas and is impressive.
The museum not only pays tribute to veterans, but it also serves as a tribute to the many people who organized efforts to obtain funding to have the museum built, including museum co-founders Charlotte Oleinik and Charlie Davis and state Rep. Lois Kolkhorst.
The efforts of the many volunteers have played a major role in the operation of the museum, assisting when it was located at West Hill Mall, and then helping move the thousands of items from the mall to the new location and the almost non-stop effort needed to organize the exhibits in their new home.
“The museum started in 1993 as a store front display and has come a long way since that time,” Harris said Wednesday. “The journey has been long and tedious but it has been a really good journey.
“It has got the markings of a great museum — it is a living museum, for all veterans, and it is right here in Huntsville.”
The new Veterans Museum is a grand addition to the museums already located in Huntsville, epecially since it was built adjacent to the Veterans Conference Center and Walker County Storm Shelter and they are located a short distance from the Texas Prison Museum.
Wednesday morning’s grand opening ceremony and the Veterans Banquet later that evening attracted an exceptional number of people and both were well organized events.
An estimated 700 people crowded into the conference center’s main room for the grand opening and more than 500 people attended the banquet where Oleinik honored museum volunteers Sam and Marie Martinez and museum board chairman Richie Harris for their contributions.
“I thought it was wonderful,” Oleinik said of the grand opening. “I don’t think there was a dry eye in that place.
“Jay Kimbrough summed it up as well as anybody. He said, ‘you know, this could have been in Houston or Dallas or Austin, but it’s in the smaller community of Huntsville and that says lot of the community’ and what we have tried to do.
“I think we have something very unique. I think the community realizes that, too. Dreams do come true. You can’t give up.”
While it took an enourmous amount of effort and hard work by everyone involved to bring the Veterans Museum to where it is today, it will take that same amount of effort or even more to provide funding to keep the museum going, add to the exhibits in place and bring in new ones.
We commend everyone involved in helping make “a dream come true” and one that will benefit Huntsville and Walker County for years ahead.
