Statue honors past Lions Club members
ELKHART — The Elkhart Lions Club will unveil a bronze lion statue next to the Midwest Museum of American Art to commemorate 100 years since the club was established.
The lion weighs 425 pounds and is 40 inches high and 72 inches long.
“This is the way that we would like to remember all of the work that Lions before us have done,” Karin Frey, past president of the Elkhart Lions Club, said. “We thought that a statue of a lion would be the appropriate thing to do.”
The statue will be unveiled at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 16.
Frey enlisted the help of an Elkhart native sculptor, Andrew Owens. He started out by creating a smaller, identical model, which he enlarged digitally. He had a Styrofoam piece cut at the enlarged size and had clay put on top of it.
From there, Owens was able to design the sculpture the way he wanted and then he took a rubber mold from it.
“That allows you to cast it in wax,” Owens said. “That wax then goes to the foundry and then they invest it in a ceramic shell material.”
The foundry Owens used to cast the sculpture is in Chicago. He said he wanted the lion to look ferocious and majestic.
“We’re making a mini plaza here to have it stand out,” Ray Enfield, another past president of the Lions Club, said. “We expect kids to climb on it, so we’re going to have some soft material around it.”
Owens expects people to touch and climb on it. He said the sculpture is something people need to experience and not just observe from afar.
Enfield created the layout for the plaza. He said there will eventually be bricks that honor the people who made donations primarily outside of the Lions Club.
Frey said the lion statue showcases courage and strength, which are two traits she thinks Elkhart residents have.
“I think the city is going to be really amazed as to what the project looks like,” Frey said. “I don’t think when we presented it to the city, they were really aware as to the symbol and the enormity of this project.”
