More than 20 volunteers from NewDay USA, a financial services company primarily for veterans, active-duty service members, and their families and other members of the military community gathered early Saturday morning at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to scrub and wash the 492 feet of black granite dedicated to the U.S. service members who died in the Vietnam War.

Jan Scruggs, a decorated Vietnam veteran who first conceived of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in 1979, said about the event, “Maintaining the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is about more than preserving a physical structure; it’s about honoring the sacrifice and memory of those who served. Having companies like NewDay USA join in this solemn responsibility demonstrates the deep reverence our community has for the 58,276 names etched on this sacred wall.”

Using scrub brushes, buckets and hoses transported to the site by a National Park Service truck, the volunteers spent nearly an hour cleaning the memorial in preparation of Veterans Day, which is Nov. 11.

Volunteers temporarily removed any items left by visitors in remembrance of loved ones who had died in the war. This was done in silence.

The group worked steadily, occasionally pausing to read some of more than 58,000 names on the wall or messages left with the mementos.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, designed by American architect Maya Lin, was completed in 1982. It is located in Constitution Gardens, next to the National Mall, northeast of the Lincoln Memorial.