Roosevelt Island FDR Hope Memorial Depicting President Franklin D Roosevelt As A Disabled Person Sitting In Wheelchair Greeting Young Girl Standing On Crutches Completed - Soon To Be Unveiled At Southpoint Park Says RIOC President

While walking in Southpoint Park last Sunday, I noticed the Roosevelt Island FDR Hope Memorial
 

is almost ready for unveiling.

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The FDR Hope Memorial depicts President Franklin D. Roosevelt sitting in his wheelchair greeting a young girl standing on crutches. According to the FDR Hope Memorial Committee:

Celebrating Franklin D. Roosevelt's perseverance despite the paralysis of his legs, the FDR Hope Memorial provides inspiration to those struggling with the extraordinary personal challenges of all forms of disability. The memorial is located near the southern top of Roosevelt Island in NYC—with the United Nations within FDR's view....

There have been many delays and setbacks since the FDR Hope Memorial was first proposed in 2009,

Image From RIOC October, 2020 Newsletter

as a protest by the Roosevelt Island Disabled Association (RIDA) and others, of the then proposed Louis Kahn designed FDR Four Freedoms Park failure to recognize FDR as a disabled person .

As reported in 2015:

... The efforts to build a memorial on Roosevelt Island depicting President Roosevelt in a wheelchair began in 2009 when RIDA opposed and protested the Louis Kahn FDR Four Freedom Park design proposal for not portraying in any manner President Roosevelt as a disabled person.

RIDA and the FDR Four Freedoms Park organizers subsequently reconciled and have been working together to bring the FDR Hope Memorial to fruition....

During last evening's Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board Of Directors meeting, Acting RIOC President Shelton Haynes reported that:

...the FDR Hope Memorial is now completed and we hope to have unveiling very soon, weather permitting and social distancing permitting....

Roosevelt Island FDR Hope Memorial is completed says @RiocCeo during @RIOCny Board meeting tonight. Hopes to have ribbon cutting soon. pic.twitter.com/EKzmguWo6o

— Roosevelt Islander (@Rooseveltisland) December 30, 2020

Here's a 2012 interview with FDR Hope Memorial Sculptor Meredith Bergmann and former RIDA President/FDR Hope Committee Chair Jim Bates (now deceased) at an early design mock-up presentation of the FDR Hope Memorial. (At the time of interview, the Memorial included  FDR's desk which was not included in final design)

Also, in 2015 former RIDA President Virginia Granato, who was very involved in early stages of the project before she passed away, described what the FDR Hope Memorial meant to her.

RIOC took over the FDR Hope Memorial project and has brought it to completion and a soon to be scheduled unveiling.