The organizing committee seeking to put up a statue in honour of Pioneer Women in the Weyburn area have now reached the halfway point in their fundraising goal.
The organizing committee seeking to put up a statue in honour of Pioneer Women in the Weyburn area have now reached the halfway point in their fundraising goal.
The committee's goal initially was to raise $120,000 to cover the cost of commissioning the statue and getting it installed; the committee has raised around $60,000 as they continue to raise awareness and funds for the statue project.
This is the second phase now, as the sculptors will now make a full-size clay model of the proposed statue, said committee member Stan Runne. The first phase was to make the initial payment of $25,000 so materials could be ordered, and that was done at the kickoff for the campaign in May.
The statue has been commissioned from Alberta sculptors Don and Shirley Begg of Cochrane, Alta., who own their own foundry and studio. In conjunction with the statue, the committee is asking for submissions of stories of pioneer women, which will be compiled into a book.
Runne said once the clay model has been approved, they will do rubber models, and over the winter months will cast the statue, with delivery and installation likely to be in the spring of next year.
Meantime, people have been asking when receipts will be coming, said Runne; the first batch of receipts went out in June, and since then, the funds raised have been turned over to the City of Weyburn, and they will issue the receipts in the coming months.
He added that the committee is encouraging donations of any size, small or large, if people want to support this project. So far, there have been 92 donors to the project.
"A lot of people think they should be giving donations of $1,000 or something similar, and that's not the case. A lot of people can't afford to give that much. They can give smaller amounts; we're more than happy to accept whatever they might be able to give," said Runne, noting if a tax receipt is wanted, the donation has to be a minimum of $20.
Meantime, the committee is hoping the Parks Board can finalize possible locations for the statue down to one or two locations soon, as Runne noted, "People have waiting to find out where it's going."
