The foundation of ‘The Wall’ is more than wood or cement – it’s the work of those who created Veterans Park.

Joe Paradis is the kind of guy who takes his priest out to breakfast.

The soft-spoken Korean War veteran, and former prisoner of war, doesn’t swap tales of derring-do, or boast of medals he earned. After the war, once he stepped off the Grand Trunk Railway into downtown Lewiston and walked home, that was it for him.

But Paradis never stopped walking. (He walks most mornings around the city.) It was during one saunter around Kennedy Park, about seven years ago, he realized his hometown should have a park to honor its veterans.

“If a city councilor did something, the park would be named for a councilor. What’s wrong with having a park named for veterans?” recalls Paradis today. “So I thought, ‘I’m going to do something about this.’ I’m not going to give up, until we do. We’re forgetting what veterans did, they paid a heckuva price.”

This weekend, the park Paradis worked to get is displaying a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, alongside its standing monuments to Maine veterans and veteran groups. More people – perhaps 40,000 – are expected in Veterans Park this weekend, the most since its dedication in 2001.

But no matter the sound of the crowd, the size of the color guards or the decibels of the rifle cracks that emanate from the park this weekend, its feeling, for Paradis, remains the same: tranquility.

“The park is so relaxing, so peaceful,” he says. “I sit there, and it reminds me of a veterans’ cemetery. It sends you a message, a silent message. To me, going to that park, everyday, is a silent night.”

For veterans of all backgrounds, this calming feeling is most welcome. Only since Vietnam and the wars in the Middle East, has the military increased attention, and treatment, for post-traumatic disorders caused by conflict.

Many veterans don’t, or cannot, speak about wartime experiences for this reason. Paradis doesn’t like to have his photograph taken, he says, because of something that occurred while a prisoner. He declines to elaborate, but his quiet demurral is all the explanation necessary.

People at “The Wall” also make these silent statements. On Thursday afternoon, just prior to the memorial’s official unveiling, veterans from every conflict treaded though a light rain to see it.

There were elderly men, wearing Korean War baseball caps, and Vietnam veterans in leather vests. Men stood on tiptoes to make name-rubbings. Every few minutes, one of the wall’s ushers would boom, “Are you a Vietnam vet?” to passersby. If the answer was yes, his response was always the same: “Welcome home, brother.”

Paradis recalls talking with homeless Vietnam veterans who were living, years ago, in Kennedy Park. “I asked one, what brought you into this situation? They said, ‘When we came back from Vietnam, they didn’t want to see us.’I used to see them quite often, and it wasn’t getting any better [for them].”

“They deserve this recognition,” he adds, talking about The Wall. “And more.”

It’s Paradis who’s uncomfortable with recognition. Though he and others worked tirelessly to re-name Heritage Park into Veterans Park, a newspaper headline from 2001 proclaimed: “Joe Paradis did it alone.” That type of statement has never sat quite right with him.

Paradis did it though tenacity. Constant visits to city hall, each time with new names on his petition for park re-naming; requesting and receiving dozens of letters from veterans, veterans organizations, local businessmen and politicians supporting his effort to establish a veterans park.

Then there was fund raising for the monuments, the next of which is likely to be dedicated this coming Veterans’ Day, Nov. 11. The latest, a “Remember the Maine” stone, was only placed in the park in September.

He’s chronicled this journey with a simple scrapbook – a standard black binder, with a few military stickers on the cover. Inside are a couple hundred pieces of paper in plastic sleeves. The total cost of the book, as far as office supplies go, is likely only a few dollars.

For Paradis, though, it’s invaluable. His simple scrapbook details how veterans became to honored in Lewiston, just how the simple park along the Androscoggin River has been reborn – this weekend especially – into a place for all veterans to enjoy, reflect and remember.

“I am so proud. Every time I go by there, I get the chills,” he says. “I feel good that after I leave this world, the veterans will never be forgotten.”

“We have a park to go to today.”