Deborah Higgins founded the National Fallen Heroes Memorial, a nonprofit organization, in 2006. Since then, she has invested her own money to help get the project off the ground.

The plans

To date, she has invested and raised about $500,000 for the facility near Frederick that will feature a museum, memorials representing all branches of the military, statues representing those currently serving and veterans who are still living, a 24-hour counseling center, a chapel and a restaurant. She hopes to break ground by the end of this year or early spring 2011.

The estimated cost of the memorial is at least $100 million. To finish the museum, she needs to raise $17 million.

“You have to realize, this memorial is seven to 10 times the size of the World War II memorial