Remembered in stone, bronze

OWATONNA —

By the side of Austin Road in Owatonna, flags fly over statues and stone, and a myriad of etched names ensure the memories of America’s military members remain a part of the community they worked and fought to protect. The recently completed Owatonna Veterans Memorial, also known as the Steele County Veterans Memorial, seeks to recognize all branches and thank them for their service around the globe.

Veterans have always been a significant part of the Owatonna community — and they still are, with their local, active chapters of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. Owatonna already had a veterans memorial prior to the project, consisting of a flagpole and stone pedestal near the Owatonna Fire Department; however, the Moonlighters Exchange Club of Owatonna decided around 2016 they were going to put up something more significant.

“There weren’t a lot of people who knew it (the old memorial) was there,” said Nicole Wacek, a member and past president of the Moonlighters Exchange Club. “We wanted to do something bigger and greater, so everyone was recognized.”

One of the hardest hurdles to the veterans memorial project came right off the bat: finding land for it, which was not so readily available in Owatonna. After years of searching, Wacek was able to secure land that was part of the Steele County Fairgrounds Park, which was county-owned, not city-owned.

“When we decided we needed to go down a different avenue, we were very excited they (the county) were going to let us put it out there,” Wacek said.

Crews broke ground in 2022, and the Owatonna Veterans Memorial was dedicated on Veterans Day 2023.

For that stage, the Moonlighters Exchange Club worked with John and Barb Heerema, owners of Owatonna Monument and Granite, to make the stone monuments. John helped with the monument design, and the contractor, Jim Hoffmann, was also a veteran himself.

“John had a lot of different designs for us; he brought them back, and we voted on it as a club what we thought would work best out there,” Wacek said. “We wanted a globe as our focal point, and so we decided on the globe to begin with and went off that. … We wanted to make sure we had all branches of service out there, and that does include the Space Force, … so that’s kind of unique to the memorial.”

The second stage with the bronze statues started with Wacek researching these installations and bringing her recommendations before the Moonlighters Exchange Club. The club had the statues made in Kellogg by SVJ Creative Designs, founded and owned by David and Shelly Speedling.

The Speedlings have run SVJ Creative Designs for 36 years. David never went into the military because of his flat feet, but his uncle, Dennis Speedling, was deployed to Korea in place of David’s father, Robert Speedling.

“My dad was married with a child on the way, and his name came up to go to Korea, and my uncle and dad went into the military together,” David said. “My uncle took my dad’s place and went to Korea. … I’ve always honored him. He’s special to us, so we put his face on our Korean (War monument) statue.”

Therefore, it is the Speedlings’ honor to offer their services to veterans memorials, including Owatonna’s.

“We’re affordable, we offer quality, and we genuinely love what we do,” Shelly said.

The Moonlighters Exchange Club placed its order in 2024, and the statues were in place in time for a small dedication ceremony on Veterans Day 2025.

The memorial cost nearly $1 million to make and was paid for by the Moonlighters Exchange Club’s fundraising during each stage.

Both of Wacek’s grandfathers, Joseph Wacek Sr. and Edward Bluhm, served in the military — Joseph in the Army and Bluhm in the Navy. Both of their names are inscribed on the Owatonna Veterans Memorial.

“The Owatonna Veterans Memorial isn’t exclusive to Owatonna,” Wacek said. “We would put any veteran on there at all, wherever they’re from. We have people who maybe grew up here but live in Florida and are now on the veterans memorial. Some of the smaller towns, you have to actually live in the town to be on the memorial, and we didn’t want anybody excluded. We wanted something for every veteran, and I think we accomplished that.”

As the Owatonna Veterans Memorial reaches its first anniversary of full completion, Wacek has seen how meaningful it has been for the community, especially the veterans; she has yet to hear a negative comment about it.

“They absolutely love it,” Wacek said. “It’s quite emotional for some of them; a lot of them don’t like to talk about their time in the service, but they do like to go out there, sit and reflect on things.”