Ohio students raise funds to repair Missionary Ridge Civil War monument’s drummer boy

Ponsford Limited employees Rex Lisle, left, and Gordon Ponsford work to restore the drummer boy on the Ohio monument last week. Vandalism and weathering damaged the statue. “We replaced the zinc drumsticks with aluminum ones,” Ponsford said.

Employes with Ponsford Limited, of Trenton. Ga., work to restore the Ohio monument on Missionary Ridge.

They’ve done it … almost.

Twenty-five fifth-graders at Waggoner Middle School in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, set out in late January to raise $5,000 to repair years-old damage to the drummer boy at the Ohio Monument on Missionary Ridge.

The gaggle of 11-year-olds had never seen the monument, except in pictures. But their teacher, Derek Hinkle, had traveled through the area researching his family connections to the Civil War and visited the site years ago.