It was an amazing moment that gave birth to another amazing movement to get the current Monument – the defining symbol of Charlestown – funded and built with private dollars and private efforts. That effort morphed into the Bunker Hill Monument Association (BHMA), and it boasts in its membership U.S. presidents, dignitaries, governors and other important officials – as well as neighbors who live near and take care of the Monument. The first big mission of the BHMA was to build the Monument, and once that was completed, the major function of the organization was to keep records, maintain their collection of artifacts and to proceed with the yearly commemoration of the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17.