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Ask Chuck Willis
what this hometown is and he'll ask, "What year?"
Lake Charles, LA;
Sacramento, CA; Madison, WI -- those were a few of Willis'
hometowns as he and his family accompanied his father, an Air
Force officer, across country.
Willis went to
high school in Itazuke, Japan, in the late 1950's, one of 4
million children who attended US military base schools overseas
from World War II to today. Willis would like to make once city
-- Wichita -- a hometown for all of them.
"It's in the
middle of the country. It has a good military heritage,"
said Willis about the American Overseas Schools Historical Park,
a Riverside-area museum proposed to collect and display the
history of "army brats," military personnel's children
who went to school abroad.
At a
time when other museums are in the spotlight -- the Kansas
Sports Hall of Fame's relocation to Wichita, the Kansas African
American Museum's proposed expansion, for example -- this
planned museum is staying under the radar, raising money slowly
and not building until its endowment is secure.
The
downside is that the museum, first announced in 1998, is far
from completion.
The
upside, said Tom Drysdale, president of the American Overseas
Schools Historical Society, is that when the museum is built, it
will be done right.
"We
want to build our endowment first," he said. "A lot of
museums build too fast, run out of money and go bankrupt."
The
American Overseas Schools Historical Society started collecting
artifacts and memorabilia from military schools in 1989 and
selected Wichita from 14 cities as the site for its proposed
park in 1998.
Ultimately,
a five-acre site across from the Mid-America All-Indian Center
will house archives, a museum and a visitors center. The site,
owned by city of Wichita and now used to store water tanks, was
dedicated last year, when fund-raising began in earnest.
Drysdale
said the project has received about a quarter-million dollars so
far, almost all from overseas schools alumni. The endowment goal
is $4.5 million, he said.
The
next phase, he said, is seeking endowment grants from
non-profits and governmental organizations. It's a painstaking
process, he said. But he also points out that Exploration Place
on the Arkansas River took 11 years to create from start to
finish.
"We've
been meeting with other museums across the country, and they
said this is the right way to do it," he said.
Jeanne
Goodvin, the city's citizen participation coordinator, agreed.
The city hasn't officially agreed to let the museum lease its
property, she said, but because of the city's current use of the
site, there isn't a pressing need to use it for something else.
Another
museum would boost tourism, she said, and the city is supporting
the project by leasing warehouse space in south Wichita where
the society is storing 50,000 pounds of artifacts.
"I
look at Wichita as more than the Air Capital," Goodvin
said. "This brings in a broader range of people."
But
in one sense, perhaps a narrow one. Although 4 million students
sounds like a lot, it's still less than 2 percent of the
country's total population. Willis, who heads the Wichita
overseas historical society, said non-military people would come
to the museum in part because of the interesting people and
experiences of base schools.
"Shaquille
O'Neal played overseas" in base schools, he said. "We
probably have some of his trophies in some of these boxes"
which are in storage, awaiting display.
Priscilla
Presley, actor Robert Duvall and other "army brats"
would also be featured in the museum, he said. Meanwhile, the
museum's uniqueness would bring people to Wichita who otherwise
would never be here.
"A
'brat' in New York, he wouldn't come here for Cowtown or the
zoo," he said. "He would come here for this
museum."
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