What could two St. Mary’s students 62 years apart in age possibly have in common? In the case of Jimmy Moore, Class of 1962, and Joseph Goyette, Class of 2024, it is their desire to see military veterans who attended the school properly recognized.
About 20 percent of Moore’s classmates served in the military during the Vietnam War, with three making the ultimate sacrifice. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve. When the class gathered for a 50th reunion in 2012, the veterans were recognized and fondly remembered, prompting Moore to think it would be worthwhile for St. Mary’s to formally recognize all graduates who are veterans.
Enter Goyette.
While attending a robotics competition at Reading High School, he noticed a memorial to graduates who had been killed in action in Vietnam.
“I started thinking our school could have something like that and I could do it,” he said.
When it came time to take on an Eagle Scout project, as he fulfills requirements to attain the highest rank in Boy Scouts, Goyette decided to create a veterans’ memorial in the new Mosakowski Gardens behind the school, in the All Saints Place section honoring alumni. He reached out to Head of School Dr. John F. Dolan, who connected him with Jeff Chelgren, the landscape architect who designed the gardens.
Chelgren shared a software program with Goyette, who took it from there.
“It didn’t take long for him to be teaching me about the program,” Chelgren said. “He was committed to the project and he led the design process.”
There is a plaza at each entrance of the gardens, providing an opportunity for a monument to veterans. In between there is a pathway that will be heavily planted with greenery and include remembrance stones and artwork. As part of the Eagle Scout project, Goyette will be “making the space come alive” with mulch, plants and benches, with help from about a dozen volunteers, in May.
“This is a meaningful project Joseph has undertaken,” Dolan said. “He is building the foundation for something that will have a lasting impact on our campus. And the fact that he has been able to receive guidance from Jimmy Moore says a lot about our St. Mary’s community.”
Goyette needs help in one key area: identifying St. Mary’s graduates who are veterans, since the school does not have such a database.
Tapping into the institutional memory of someone like Moore has gotten him off to a good start. St. Mary’s Executive Director of External Affairs Jamie Gigliotti is creating a form that will be shared with the overall alumni database, which should also yield a significant number of names. And since Goyette must complete his Eagle Scout project by Nov. 18, the school’s annual Veterans Day celebration this year will provide an opportunity to shine a light on his efforts.
“I want to leave the space so that it can be expanded for posterity,” said Goyette, a member of Boy Scout Troop 83 in Salem. “It’s important that we honor those who attended our school and what they did for our country.”
Anyone who is a St. Mary’s graduate and a veteran, or knows of any veteran alumni, please visit https://www.stmaryslynn.com/veterans to fill out the form or email [email protected].
