Radio amateurs among ValuJet Flight 592 Memorial cleanup volunteers

Some two dozen radio amateurs, boy scouts, firefighters, rescue squad members, Florida Power and Light employees, Miccosukee Tribe Police and local residents recently collaborated in doing a good turn for the families of ValuJet Flight 592 victims.

The ValuJet DC-9 airliner crashed in Florida's Everglades on May 11, 1996, following an onboard fire, killing 110
passengers and crew members. Unfortunately, vandals recently defaced the ValuJet Flight 592 Memorial, located near the crash site off the Tamiami Trail. Volunteers from area Amateur Radio clubs and Boy Scout troops have been routinely maintaining the site for a few years now, and they were among those who turned out to erase spray-painted graffiti from the defaced stones and give the memorial an overall sprucing up.

"We can be proud of the dedication of the citizens of Miami-Dade County to this memorial," remarked ARRL Southern Florida Section Manager Sherri Brower, W4STB, on the ARRL Southern Florida Section page .
"Thanks to all in the amateur community who have been--and continue to be--part of the caretaking team of the memorial. This truly shows that Amateur Radio operators give to their communities in many ways."

Matt Ginn, KG4LGO, a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue radio installer, is credited with getting the ball rolling on the graffiti cleanup effort. He approached his department about borrowing a fire truck. A Coral Gables police officer supplied a pressure washer. Word got around, others learned of the effort and more got involved. "That's people's family that died out there," Ginn explained to the Associated Press. "They don't have a gravestone except for that monument."

As it turned out, solvents and three power washers made quick work of the graffiti on July 16, so the volunteers proceeded to clean all 110 of the memorial's stones. There's one for each victim, configured so they form an arrow that points to the spot where the plane went down. They also washed and polished the memorial's stone plaque listing the victims' names.

As volunteer Robert Cruz, KE4MCL, explained, it could be painstaking work. "The granite tablet was cleaned by using a sock worn like a glove sprayed with graffiti remover and lightly patting the tablet surface to dampen the graffiti," he recounted on the South Florida FM Association (SFFMA) Web site . "After giving it a few seconds to work, then you carefully wipe the paint away, working around the edges of
the letters so as to avoid getting inside the black outlines."

In 2001, the Dade County Amateur Radio Public Service Corps organized a group of active South Florida hams to spruce up the neglected Flight 592 Memorial for the first time. Many of the hams involved in that cleanup had helped provide communication in the aftermath of the 1996 tragedy.

As the Amateur Radio volunteers did in 2001, the recent refurbishing went beyond cleaning up the vandalism to weeding, killing ant colonies, cutting grass, sweeping, refilling missing sand, re-leveling brick walkways and piling up the debris--mostly natural overgrowth. As one volunteer noted afterward, not only was the spray paint gone, but so were mold spots and accumulated grime.

About 10 hams were among those who helped out during the July 16 community work day. The project also attracted nationwide media coverage, from local and regional newspapers and broadcast outlets to the Associated Press and dozens of newspapers and TV stations from coast to coast.

Source: ARRL Letter - courtesy of The American Radio Relay League

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