Palo Verde High remembers teacher lost to Sept. 11 attacks

Sept. 11 had even more significance this year for students, faculty, administrators and community partners of Palo Verde High School in Summerlin. The date was marked with the public unveiling of the Barbara G. Edwards Memorial on the school's soccer field overlooking the Las Vegas Valley. Edwards, a language teacher at the school, was killed when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

A two-year-effort, the memorial came to fruition with the help of five major contributors working with a committee of school representatives.

Major contributors included The Howard Hughes Corp., developer of the Summerlin community, which oversaw the development of the project and provided plants from its nursery.

Other donors included JMA Architecture Studios, which designed the monument; Executive Homes Inc., which acted as general contractor and donated stone; Regency Ready Mix Inc., which provided all of the concrete; and Regency Design & Landscaping, which provided landscaping labor and irrigation services.

Hughes officials and Palo Verde soccer coach Kevin Hagood came together to develop the plans, according to Hughes executive Tom Warden.

The company enlisted Tom Schoeman of JMA Architecture Studios, who readily joined the project, and Executive Homes Inc., which is a member of the community's Featured Builder program.

"Yohan Lowie of Executive Homes not only donated thousands of dollars of limestone for the monument, he assigned Paul DeHart, the company's top construction executive, to supervise the building of the memorial," Warden said.

Lowie said the total value of the memorial far exceeds the $45,000 budgeted.

The horseshoe-shaped memorial, situated on the southeast corner of the school's soccer field, has a built-in seating area, paving stones with the handprints of some of Edwards' students, trees leading up to it, and a 30-foot lighted flagpole.

The inscription on the monument, "We will never forget," is written in three languages: English, German and French -- the languages Edwards taught at the school.

Palo Verde High School Principal Paul Oisboid said the site is meaningful since Edwards was a supporter of the school's soccer program.

"Although the world will never be the same as a result of the events of Sept. 11, building this memorial has been a meaningful and constructive activity for the community and the students," Warden said. "While the memorial is dedicated to a single individual, it is a broader celebration of life and the basic goodness of humanity."

Summerlin has ranked as the nation's best-selling master-planned community for 10 of the past 11 years, according to independent surveys.

The community is home to eight golf courses, 107 neighborhood and village parks, 107 miles of trails, 16 schools, houses of worship, shopping centers, medical facilities, cultural facilities, business parks and nearly 120 model homes.

Home prices start from the mid-$100,000s to more than $700,000.

Custom-home sites are priced from the high $500,000s to more than $1 million. Predesigned custom homes are priced from $2.1 million.

Apartments offer monthly rents from the low $800s.

For more information, visit www.reviewjournal.com/real estate and click on the Summerlin link.

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