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Members of Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter are joining forces with the Oregon Military Department in an effort to raise $6.5 million toward the cost to improve the Oregon Military Museum at Camp Withycombe in Clackamas.

Alisha Hamel of the Historical Outreach Foundation, the museum’s fundraising arm, said AGC members have been invaluable. They are researching ways that construction professionals can offer their services for free or at reduced rates, she said.

They have also formed a board to help museum officials eventually find a contractor for the project, she added.

Perhaps most important, Hamel said, AGC officials are working with the military department on a training program to teach construction skills to returning veterans.

“Returning Oregon guardsmen are the perfect people to fill the growing number of construction jobs,” she said.

Museum officials plan to reconfigure the existing museum at Withycombe, an active National Guard post, to make room for new buildings as well as a plaza and entry gate.

“The goal of the museum is to educate Oregonians and anyone coming from other states about the history and heritage of the military in Oregon going back to the wagon train days,” said Staff Sgt. Nick Choy, a spokesman for the department.

“There is special emphasis on the Oregon National Guard – or the state militia as it was once known,” he said.

A fundraising silent auction for the project will take place April 20 at 8 p.m. at the Governor Hotel in Portland. It will feature live entertainment from Tommy Thayer, a Kiss band member and the son of Brig. Gen. James B. Thayer. Other performers at the auction will include Patrick Lamb, Linda Hornbuckle and Derrick McDuffey.

The expanded museum will be named in honor of the brigadier general, who received the Bronze Star and Silver Star in World War II after helping liberate a Nazi concentration camp.

Tickets for the event are $150 each, $100 of which is deductible. More information is available the event .