Memorial Engraved Brick Sponsorship
For $250, names of individuals, family and friends, or associations can be engraved on 4” X 8” bricks and embedded into the Chinese American Memorial. Names can be in English text or traditional or simplified Chinese characters. A corresponding digital entry (including photos) will be added to a linked, interactive data base maintained by the 1882 Foundation. For $1,000, names of ancestral districts in China can be engraved in traditional Chinese characters on 12” x 12” pavers at the center of the memorial.
The income from brick sales maintains the site and supports annual commemorative events during Qingming. Funds will also allow for installing interpretive signage and creating a digital archive of the stories of the names engraved on the bricks. Working with the Chinese American Heroes Project in San Francisco, these mini histories of the Chinese American experience will be preserved.
By accepting brick donations continuously from around the country, the memorial has a dynamic aspect depicting growth, as has our community grown throughout America’s history –the red bricks representing individuals and their contributions (however small or large) joined together and the inner pavers reminding visitors of the traditions, geography, and history that gave the community its character.
The benches are a place for visitors to rest as did the hundreds of migrants who struggled for better lives and who were buried briefly at this location before their bones were returned to China. The memorial is a place of contemplation in full view of all the peoples who contributed to the American nation. The red-barked and white flowers of the crepe myrtle that thrives between the benches and the Gingko Tree (an ancient tree from China) add a sense of firm roots and shady comfort for the visitors.
