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Reminder Assistant Editor WESTFIELD The dedicated members of the Pioneer Valley Military Transportation Museum (P.V.M.T.M.) have been laboring for almost a decade to see their vision of a full-scale, fully functional military and civilian transportation museum come to life. The eight-acre site of the P.V.M.T.M., located at Barnes Airport, currently houses one museum Quonset hut and one aged trailer from the previous tenants, according to Harland Avezzie, acting president of the P.V.M.T.M. board of directors. The site is a far cry from the projected P.V.M.T.M., which has been designed to include one storage and restoration Quonset (currently located on the property), three display Quonsets, a main building and a parking lot. In an effort to raise additional funds for operating costs, the P.V.M.T.M. will be hosting a variety of events throughout the year, beginning with a gala auction and annual meeting on March 22. Approximately 35 items, including a signed photograph of the Enola Gay by pilot Col. Paul Tibbets and navigator Maj. Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, a Mahogany A-10 model, a pilot's Nomax jacket and a T-28 arrestor hook, will be auctioned at the event. "There's no transportation museums in Massachusetts and if we could put this together as a living museum it would be the only one in Massachusetts," Avezzie said. He explained that the P.V.M.T.M. has entered into a 50-year lease for the eight acres of airport property from Barnes Airport and the city of Westfield. Avezzie said the goal of the board of directors and all of the volunteers is to create a museum filled with fully functional modes of civilian and military transportation. "What we're trying to do is make everything flyable and drivable," Avezzie said, adding that volunteers have worked countless hours to restore several artifacts currently owned or leased by the P.V.M.T.M. The P.V.M.T.M. has already acquired many artifacts including a Polish Antonov AN-2 aircraft, a M59 armored personnel carrier from 1953, and a deuce-and-a-half-truck. Many other vehicles have also been borrowed. Avezzie explained that the preliminary plans for the museum would separate the artifacts and vehicles chronologically within the three Quonsets early, vintage vehicles and aircraft in the first, 1800s to World War II (WWII) modes of transportation in the second and WWII to present vehicles in the third. Leo Due, member of the P.V.M.T.M. board of directors, said a massive weekly cleanup conducted by volunteers during the warm weather months has cleared the land from the existing Quonset to where the three main museum Quonsets would be erected. Avezzie said all of the funds raised through the various programs throughout this year will go to operational costs. He added that a feasibility study must be conducted before an estimate of the P.V.M.T.M.'s total cost can be assessed and a capital fundraising campaign can be finalized. "It hasn't been quite as easy as we'd thought it was going to be [constructing and opening the museum to the public]," Dorothy Foley, secretary of the P.V.M.T.M. board of directors, said. "It's been more of a steady, slow-going [process]. We're trying to keep the idea of the museum in front of people." Avezzie said the goal for this year is to "put up a small building this summer for some displays just to get the doors open." The P.V.M.T.M. gala auction and annual meeting will take place at the East Mountain Country Club. Cocktails and viewing of the auction items will begin at 5:30 p.m., dinner is at 6:30 p.m. and the auction will begin at 7:30 p.m. The cost is $25 for P.V.M.T.M. members and $35 for non-members. Memberships will also be accepted at the door for an annual fee of $20. Future P.V.M.T.M. fundraising events include the Spring Hangar Dance in May, the second annual Experimental Aircraft Association Warbirds Fly-In in July and the Fall Hangar Dance in September. For more information about the P.V.M.T.M. visit www.pvmtm.org. | ||||||
