The 6-foot tall statue is unveiled in North Carolina
As a 25th anniversary Veterans Day ceremony was celebrated here in Malibu last week, one Malibu resident celebrated our country’s servicemen and women in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Steven Barber was across the country for Veterans Day for the unveiling of his latest monument. The 6-foot tall bronze statue honoring veterans was commissioned by Lowe’s. The chain of home improvement stores is the country’s largest employer of veterans withmore than 26,000 veterans and military spouses working for the company. The company also supports veterans by sourcing $293 million in products from veteran-owned businesses.
Barber, a Malibu resident of more than 20 years, is an artist and filmmaker. He’s made nine features and documentaries themed on bravery in the military. His latest film available on Peacock, “The World’s Most Dangerous Paper Route,” tells the story of the deliverymen who risked their lives by enduring treacherous conditions to bring the military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper to soldiers in Afghanistan.
In 2018, Barber’s career took a turn when a movie he was working on about hero astronaut Buzz Aldrin had its funding fall through. But Barber said, “Sometimes success sneaks in the back door disguised as failure. I thought it was the worst day of my life, but it ended up being a great day.”
Instead of making a movie about Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon after Neil Armstrong as part of the Apollo 11 space mission, Barber decided to build a monument. He took his idea to NASA who commissioned the work for Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary. The magnificent 1,400-lb., 12-foot gold and bronze monument to Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin, a friend of Barber, is now a popular feature at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it’s viewed by 20,000 people daily.
Barber then raised money and built monuments commemorating the crew of Apollo 13, whose brave astronauts faced a near-fatal power loss that threatened their safe return. That monument now sits at the Houston Space Flight Center. Then last year, the artist unveiled his Sally Ride monument close to home at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
Now the Malibu resident is very proud of his latest creation that honors our nation’s servicemen and servicewomen.The 6-foot tall statue depicts an active servicewoman carrying a folded flag, about to shake hands with a Lowe’sveteran employee carrying the triangle piece that will hold the flag. “She’s got the flag under her arm and is about to hand it off to him,” Barber described. “They’re working together as a team.” It evokes a spirit of goodwill and thankfulness. The monument is entitled “Building Memories.” The veteran depicted in the artwork is wearing a vest with a patch that denotes his military service. Lowe’s veteran employees also sport the vests at the chain’s 1,746 US stores.
The unveiling on Veterans Day in Fayetteville was “tremendous” according to Barber. One hundred and fifteen Lowe’semployees were on hand and company executives thanked them for their service.
It’s hoped the monument will be reproduced at other stores. One location of particular interest would be at the chain’sOceanside store where there’s a large military presence as its near Camp Pendleton.
So far Barber says the response has been terrific. “People are enthralled with it. People appreciate monuments,” he said.”We’re still in awe of the pyramids, some 3,000 years later. My monuments will probably be here 500 years from now. So, it’s kind of cool. Everything’s temporary with Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok, but a monument is a permanent fixture that inspires and makes a difference.”
The filmmaker and monument builder added, “If it were not for the United States military, the world would be thrustinto darkness. I know the sacrifices they make. The incredible sacrifice that young people make going into the service cannot be forgotten, and we cannot do enough for the American veteran. We owe them a great debt of gratitude. Many leave high school and go straight into the military and they are not given any sort of education or preparation to come back into the real world as adults, and that is ridiculous and needs to be changed. The fact that we have homeless veterans, that should be against the law. We need to take care of them.”
