Sculpture to honor firefighters, officers will be unveiled Sunday

A new sculpture honoring police officers and firefighters is set to be unveiled Sunday at the River Heritage Museum in Cape Girardeau.

Tammy Holshouser, president of the board, said the piece will be dedicated during a gathering at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Although she preferred not to describe the new sculpture in detail, Holshouser said it’s made of stainless steel.

“That’s part of the surprise, with the unveiling,” she said.

A 4-foot figure will stand on a 5-foot pedestal in the museum parking lot facing Independence Street.

“I think everybody can connect with this when they see it,” she said.

The idea for the sculpture has been percolating for about five years.

Holshouser said she and other museum stakeholders eventually would like to see a plaza built around the statue with paver stones that display the names of police officers and firefighters, as well as anyone who contributes to the project.

Chris Wubbena, the Southeast Missouri State University sculpture professor who built the piece over the summer, said he decided to go with a stainless-steel finish because of how it will reflect the mood of the day, whether that means overcast skies or sunlight.

“I like stainless steel because it’s kind of uplifting,” he said, and he wanted the sculpture to convey a triumphant feeling. “I thought that it had to be something like that.”

He said the piece took about a month to put together, not counting the different meetings he attended during the planning process.

Ultimately, board members chose one of three designs he presented.

Wubbena is among the founders of the annual Outdoor Cape Girardeau Sculpture exhibit along Broadway, which is entering its fourth year.

ljones@semissourian.com

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