BANGOR – Gov. John Baldacci, as a tribute to all Maine Vietnam veterans, has declared Friday, Aug. 24, as Maine Vietnam Veterans Day. Baldacci designated the Cole Land Transportation Museum and events to highlight the day.

A letter and invitation to participate is being mailed to 1,000+ Vietnam veterans. At 1:30 p.m. that day, all Vietnam veterans having received a walking stick can have a Cole Museum Memorial Park commemorative red, white and blue reflective sticker applied to their stick. Eight hundred additional walking sticks with commemorative stickers will be available for Vietnam veterans with identification who have not previously received one.

In addition, all Korean veterans with walking sticks can have applied a sticker in commemoration of the day’s events. All World War II veterans attending with their sticks can receive a 2007 commemoration sticker if one was not applied on Memorial Day.

Don Colson, who authored “Quiet Courage,” and Baldacci will be present. Books will be available for purchase at the museum, with all proceeds used for purchase of additional Vietnam walking sticks plus a gift for transportation to support 35 Luxembourg, Europe, patriotic teenagers who will sing here in Maine that week.

They will perform at a special 3 p.m. presentation in conjunction with Baldacci’s thank-you to veterans at the Vietnam Memorial on the museum’s lawn.

Seating will include temporary use of 20 6-foot-long Maine granite benches remaining from 75 procured by the museum and donated earlier this year to cemeteries and veterans memorials throughout Maine. At 3:30 p.m., several of the remaining granite benches will be picked up by memorial committees and transported for placement at permanent locations in Maine.