Ozarks Life: Veterans’ Monument wraps up five year journey for Bolivar teenager

BOLIVAR, Mo. (KY3) - At Bolivar High School, senior Asa Murray is writing his biography for a class.

“Right now, I’m just a Life Scout,” Asa said.

But he’s working toward becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America. Since 1911, only 4% have reached this lofty level.

But as part of the process, he needs a project.

“I was trying to figure out a good Eagle Scout project that would honor the community,” Asa remembers. “I didn’t want a project that would not be respectable to Eagle Scouts or to Boy Scouts of America.”

Five years ago, he started talking to veterans and quickly realized the square only had a World War I memorial.

That’s how his Eagle Scout project, Monument 250, came to be.

It has the names of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving in World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam, and whose bodies were returned to Polk County.

“We decided to go straight off of just what the War Department said itself,” Asa said.

This steel structure also honors the Prisoners of War and Missing in Action and features a powerful passage from a former President.

“I have a quote from Ronald Reagan about freedom’s never free,” Asa added, “and it really isn’t.”

It took five long years to make this monument a reality. His grandparents helped by making several different 3D models.

“There was one that was thrown away in the trash,” Asa laughed, “and I was like, ‘What’s that one?’ And it was the weird shape that we have right now. For any of the mathematicians out there, please try to figure out what shape it is. We have not figured out what shape it is.”

Then, Asa needed someone’s help to build this monument with a triangle at the base leading to a hexagonal pyramid at the top.

Steel would stand as strong as the resolve of our American Veterans.

“It took about 500 ‘no’s’ to get one ‘yes’,” Asa said.

That one “yes” came from Carl Summers at Superior Products and Services.

“(He) takes this model that I had made of the monument,” Asa said, “and he looks at it on the front; it says, ‘Freedom’s Never Free,’ and he just gave it back to me and goes, ‘I’m in.’”

As Carl handled the welding and laser cutting over the years, Asa helped prep the square. With some friends they dug out the hole and poured the gravel, rebar, and concrete foundation.

This past summer, while Asa was at camp, Carl raised Monument 250 onto its base, and checked in with a quick phone call to put the whole journey into perspective.

“This isn’t about me. This isn’t about you. It’s for the people that served,” Asa said Carl told him. “You may not know their names, but their names will live forevermore.”

“And it was his last job that he did here before going to heaven,” Carl’s wife, Jo Ann Summers, said.

“I need to be able to look at it thinking of him and how hard he worked,” Jo Ann continued, “and how little he realized how wonderful it was going to be.”

A wonderful monument, from a wonderful friendship, born from the unwavering wonder of a Bolivar teen.

“Don’t give up,” Asa said. “Keep your hopes high. Keep your head high. There might be 500 ‘no’s,’ but that one ‘yes’ will open up tons and tons of doors.”

There’s a dedication ceremony for Monument 250 on Saturday, November 7. It’s at 2 p.m. on the square in Bolivar.

Asa will have a Challenge Coin for all veterans in attendance. It shows his Monument 250 on the front with an eagle on the back.

To report a correction or typo, please email digitalnews@ky3.com. Please include the article info in the subject line of the email.