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RANGELEY — Allen Wicken, a Rangeley area resident, Vietnam-era veteran and physical therapist, will present a slide show from his 1998 bicycling experience, in support of a team of disabled Vietnam veterans, as they cycled from Hanoi to Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam.
The program will be at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 8, at the Rangeley Public Library, 7 Lake St.
Last November, shortly before Veterans Day, Wicken shared with the Rangeley community the Emmy Award-winning documentary film “Vietnam, Long Time Coming,” telling the story of a coming together of injured veterans from both sides of the war to participate in the physically challenging ride of healing, friendship and understanding. This year, via photographic images and commentary, he wants to share his more personal experiences and perspectives with the Rangeley and western mountains communities.
While he bicycled every inch in the more than 1400-mile ride from Ho Chi Minh tomb in Hanoi to the then-presidential palace in Saigon, when he wasn’t pedaling, he was taking slide photographs with his film camera. As one who has loved photography “almost forever,” Wicken was constantly absorbing and appreciating this rich experience on many levels — taking interesting photographs documenting the country and its people in January 1998.
Wicken looks forward to sharing many of his photographic images with the community in this Vietnam War-focused year of 2017 — 50 years after the pivotal war escalation year of 1967 — particularly after the multi-part Ken Burns historical perspective on PBS this fall, “The Vietnam War.”
Wicken invites participants to ask questions, provide comments and share memories of the late ’60s and early ’70s as we approach Veterans’ Day.
