'The letters kept them going'

MILTON — "Mail Call," Roxie Platt's statue of a soldier reading a letter from home, is on display at the Santa Rosa County Veterans Memorial in downtown Milton.

It currently bears the names of 23 people and organizations who support the Veterans Memorial Foundation.

Six more names will go on the display, according to VMF General Manager Ralph Nesenson, for a total of 29 — but the foundation hopes to have many more.

Each name represents a $50 donation, making the total donations $1,450, Nesenson said. However, the VMF paid approximately $23,000 for the bronzing of the statute and the granite slab holding it, he said. It's a cost he hopes to make up through more people paying to have names inscribed.

The purpose of the statue, unlike other statues related to the military, is to honor family members, students and others who communicated with their loved ones and friends in the military.

"The letters kept them going," Nesenson said. "And the letters going back home kept the family going. They both helped each other cope."

"When somebody yells, ‘Mail call!’ everybody runs," Platt said. "The letter that [the service member represented in the statue is] reading is every person who ever wrote a letter, and represents anyone who ever sent a care package or put a box of candy in a bucket to send to the soldiers."

Since schools sometimes take time to write letters to soldiers on military holidays, Nesenson also hopes one or more campuses will make a donation and inscribe "the students of" with the name of the school following.

To have a name inscribed on the memorial, contact Nesenson at 626-7292.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: 'The letters kept them going'