WAUKESHA, Wis. — As Waukesha prepares to break ground on the parade memorial, the final pieces of the community’s voices are coming together.
“Faith, hope, love,” reads Melissa Baxter, executive director of the Waukesha County Community Foundation from a tile that will be included on the memorial.
“This one has the date of the parade tragedy, 11-21-21,” said Baxter. “Small acts of kindness.”
These are some of the messages on tiles that are currently drying in city hall. The tiles will be used in the construction of the Waukesha Parade Memorial. They were made by members of the Waukesha community who wanted to lend their support.
“Our members were impacted by the parade and what happened,” said Sandra Gines, executive director of the Adaptive Community Approach program. “We had people at the parade that day.”
ACAP is a program that works with people who have physical or developmental disabilities. They, too, will be making tiles for the memorial, about 30 of them, to be added to the nearly 1,000 tiles needed for the design.
“In the face of tragedy, there can be sparks of hope and light. So I’m thinking some of the art will depict that message,” said Allison Slamar of ACAP.
We found out last week that the Parade Memorial Fund has raised all the money needed for construction. Half of it, $600,000 came from the city, and the other half was community donations.
“The ability and willingness for people to donate money was awe-inspiring, ‘ said Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly.
Now they just need the art that will be included.
TMJ4 will be joining Allison and the ACAP members next month as they complete their tiles for the memorial. The mayor says the memorial will finished in November by the 3rd anniversary of the Waukesha Parade Tragedy.
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