The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has not dampened the resolve of the Northwestern Lehigh Veterans Memorial Committee to honor local veterans in these times and into posterity.

The committee gathered under the shade of a pavilion at Ontelaunee Park on a sweltering Saturday morning in July to review plans and meet with architect Chris Brown.

“We haven’t met since February,” said Bill Dellicker, secretary of the committee. “That was our last meeting but we’ve done a lot of work with the design.”

In addition, the committee is continuously soliciting names that will be carved into the panels of the memorial.

“We currently have somewhere around 3,000 names,” said Donald Christ, president of the committee. He added they are hopeful of getting more.

The committee wants to include the names of U.S. veterans, presently serving or honorably discharged, who have resided or are currently residing in Heidelberg, Lynn, Lowhill or Weisenberg townships.

“Those killed will have an insignia denoting that,” Dellicker said.

Veterans or their families are invited to submit names online at nwlehighvetsmemorial.org.

“Before the pandemic, we had targeted July 4 but we’ve moved it,” Dellicker said. “The number of names dictates the number of panels we will need.”

The plan currently calls for 11, six-foot panels that can accommodate names of veterans on both sides.

The committee aims to be as comprehensive as possible by including veterans from all of America’s wars since the Revolutionary War.

“On each panel there will be space to add names in order, in the era that they served,” said Harold Haas, committee member. “All the names are in alphabetical order.”

Dellicker said each panel will also include a quotation that emblematizes each war.

The words of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and many others will add another level.

Anyone visiting Ontelaunee Park can visit the memorial.

Dellicker would like teachers in the area to use the memorial as a resource and visit with their students.

“It’s a real history lesson for the kids on a field trip,” he said.

“The big thing is the students may have a relative who has served,” Christ added. “He or she will be able to touch the stone and say, ‘That’s my great grandfather.’”

The committee continues its fundraising efforts going forward.

“We’re at $24,000 but we want to make 10 times that,” Christ said.

“Anyone can make a donation on the website, if they so desire. They are tax deductible.”