Museum hosts Memorial Day activities

By AMANDA STEWART
For the Stafford County Sun
Published: May 28, 2008

QUANTICO — The parking lot of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico was packed with motorcycles bearing American flags and cars adorned with Marine Corps bumper stickers as hundreds participated in the museum’s Memorial Day activities.

The museum planned several family-friendly activities to commemorate the holiday weekend.
Inside the museum, 11-year-old Sean Samuels and his mother, Linda, stopped to make postcards for deployed Marines before going on to view the museum exhibits.

A table outside of the museum’s classroom area was set aside for children and their parents to write postcards thanking deployed Marines for their service, said museum education specialist David Fair.

“People here can sit down and write messages that we’ll gather up and bulk mail overseas,” Fair said. “And then the guys can receive a little something from home.”

After writing their postcards, children placed them in a black mailbox at the end of the table.

The museum hosted a similar activity on Veterans Day, and the tradition of writing postcards to deployed marines started back in World War I, Fair said.

Sean and his mother said they wrote their postcards to thank the armed services members currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I just said ‘Thank you,’ “ Sean said.

“It’s a way to say thank you, be safe, we’re proud of you and come home soon,” said Linda Samuels.

Inside the museum classroom, children could also make formal Marine Corps hats and artwork featuring Chesty, the Marine Corps’ bulldog mascot.

“Even though we’re a military museum, we still have kid-friendly activities,” Fair said. “We try to reach them on their level.”

A few new exhibits at the museum were also on display.

New cases in the museum’s Global War on Terrorism gallery opened this weekend and contain artifacts from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including

Marine Corps uniforms, flight suits, and improvised explosive device components, museum officials said.

On the second floor of the museum, a traveling art exhibit, “Semper Fidelis: How I Met My Father,” opened this weekend and will remain at the museum through July. The exhibit features 20 original pieces by artist Tom Hubbard.

Also over the weekend, a dozen custom-designed Marine Corps motorcycles were on display outside of the museum en-trance.

Lorton resident Brian Sanders said he and his family visit the museum about four or five times a year.

“It’s always good to come to the museum this time of year. It’s Memorial Day,” he said.

The museum is located at 18900 Jefferson Davis Hwy.  For more information about the museum, visit usmcmuseum.org.

Amanda Stewart is a staff reporter at Media General’s Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger.