FDR Hope Memorial Sculpture Depicting President Franklin D Roosevelt As A Disabled Person Moving Forward At Southpoint Park Roosevelt Island - Rehearsal Mock Up Presented To Committee Last Saturday

Image Of FDR Hope Memorial Mock Up At Southpoint Park

Reported previously on efforts by the FDR Hope Memorial Committee to:

... celebrate President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the inspiration for all who strive to overcome challenges. According to the memorial’s mission statement, “Roosevelt Island was so named to reflect a commitment to an integrated community where the disabled move freely, live independently and develop to their fullest potential. The FDR Hope Memorial will educate future generations about FDR and about Roosevelt Island, a vital community of ‘enabled’ residents.”...

and:

... A sculpture of President Franklin D. Roosevelt seated in a wheelchair, interacting with a disabled child, is planned for Roosevelt Island in New York City. The FDR Hope Memorial will be located at Southpoint Park, just south of the hospital where survivors of polio, the disease that disabled Roosevelt, benefited from the pioneering use of ventilators that freed them from the constraints of “iron lungs.”...

Last Saturday, sculptor Meredith Bergmann presented a rehearsal mock up of the FDR Hope Memorial

Image of FDR Hope Memorial Rehearsal Mock Up At Southpoint Park

to FDR Hope Memorial Committee members.

Here's a brief interview with Ms. Bergmann as well as Jim Bates, President of the Roosevelt Island Disabled Association and Chairperson of the FDR Hope Memorial Committee.

You Tube Video of FDR Hope Memorial Rehearsal Mock Up Interview

As Committee members were looking at the rehearsal mock up of the sculpture, a number of visitors to Southoint Park stopped by to find out what was going on and to ask questions. Some of the visitors did not know that FDR was a disabled person, demonstrating the importance and need for this FDR Memorial.

More information available at the FDR Hope Memorial web site and the history of the project from these previous posts.