WASHINGTON — The Pentagon Memorial Fund has received a $2.5 million donation for its planned Visitor Education Center at the Pentagon Memorial from the Maryland-based Diana Davis Spencer Foundation.
It is the fund’s largest single donation to date.
“We are proud to be a landmark supporter of the Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center, where we hope the lessons of the past will protect the future,” said Diana Davis Spencer, who serves as chairman and president of the foundation.
“This education center will not only honor the lives that were lost that day, but it will also educate so many to the strong response we as a country made in the face of terrorism,” she said.
The Visitor and Education Center has a phase 1 fundraising goal of $25 million. It has raised close to $6 million to date. The full construction and endowment will cost $75 million.
Groundbreaking is expected in late-2017, with an opening by 2020.
Content for the planned visitor center’s exhibits will come from a variety of sources, including the FBI, National Geographic, the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Air Marshals and the Smithsonian Museum of American History,
The new center will be located next to the existing National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, a $22 million, 2-acre park that was dedicated on Sept. 11, 2008. Families of the 184 victims killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon established the fund.
The foundation focuses on national security, self-reliance, free enterprise and enhancing quality of life through the arts, education and global understanding.
