Mourning parents concerned Angel of Hope will be treated as ‘just a statue’ under Island Park update plans
The Fargo Park District is exploring long-range plans and seeking public input for Island Park, the city’s oldest park.
April 27, 2022 07:00 PM
FARGO — There have been times in Jacqueline Dotzenrod’s life when she visited the Angel of Hope memorial in downtown Fargo’s Island Park every day.
Having lost three pregnancies to miscarriage, she said the statue and memorial is the only physical place she can go to remember her children.
Dotzenrod visited again Tuesday, April 26, feeling upset after a public input meeting about the future of the park, which she attended as both a Fargo Park Board candidate and citizen.
At the meeting, she heard for the first time that the memorial might be moved and incorporated into a sculpture garden.
“I was literally at a loss for words,” Dotzenrod said.
A move like that would put people’s pain on display, she said, “and I just find that idea completely reprehensible.”
Fargo Park District officials on Wednesday were quick to provide assurances that everything being discussed thus far is preliminary.
Dave Leker, executive director of the Fargo Park District, said there is no real urgency to relocate any statues in the park at this time.
Vicki Dawson, president of the Fargo Park Board, said when they began the process of establishing a long-term plan for Island Park, the importance of that memorial space was among the first things discussed.
Like all affected parties, including the YMCA and Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre, no decisions about Island Park will be made without them being involved, she said.
“They will be at the table,” Dawson said.
The 4-foot-tall, 160-pound bronze statue was placed onto a 15,000-pound granite base on a rainy October day in 2005, according to previous Forum reports.
The message “With hope in its wings” appears on one side of the base, and “A place for healing and love for all who have lost children” is on the other.
The project was initiated by Cathy Swart and Colleen Harris, who put together a committee that raised nearly $50,000 for the project.
People could buy paver bricks, which are placed around the statue, and have a child’s name engraved into them.
Every year, a candlelight memorial is held on the site.
Sheryl Cvijanovich, of Fargo, is the secretary and webmaster for the Angel of Hope memorial in Fargo and is on the citizens advisory committee for the redesign of Island Park.
She and others are hoping to add one or two more granite benches to the memorial but would have to fundraise first.
At a recent advisory committee meeting, Cvijanovich said she grew concerned when someone said Angel of Hope supporters will “just have to deal with it” if the memorial has to be moved.
She said she prefers the memorial stay where it is, but if it can’t, she wants to be in on the decision.
Cvijanovich said she invited several of the park district decisionmakers to attend a future meeting of the group to understand what the memorial means to people who have lost children.
Both she and Dotzenrod say it’s more than “just a statue,” and parents who visit the site will expect it to remain there.
In 2005, when the statue was placed, then Park District Executive Director Roger Gress called it a special project.
“It’s going to be there forever,” he said at the time.