Cincinnati Parks Foundation is proud to lead the fundraising efforts to erect a statue of Ezzard Charles in Laurel Park. To celebrate the launch of our major fundraising efforts for the project, we hosted a live sculpting event at Taft’s Brewporium on August 15. In attendance was Ezzard Charles II and his lovely wife Inetta, several Cincinnati Parks Foundation board members, Cincinnati Parks staff and board members, Lincoln Ware and many others.
Artist John Hebenstreit was on site, working on the clay version of the Ezzard Charles statue. He took questions and explained his artistic and logistical process for creating the piece. Hebenstreit is also the artist of the Black Brigade in Smale Riverfront Park.
For the first time ever, we launched a crowdsourced fundraising campaign online, which was announced at the event. The new Gofundme crowdsourcing page will help us reach our “Knockout Goal” of $10,000 raised by December of 2019. This GoFundMe page is intended to attract individuals in Cincinnati who would like to personally contribute to the project. During a “power hour” at the event $1,260 in donations flooded in from participants.The total projected cost of the project, including materials, bronze casting, artist fees, construction of a new plaza and the maintenance endowment is $275,000. The endowment will be used annually for maintenance and programming within Laurel Park. Currently we have raised 20% of our overall goal. Those who are wishing to make donations over $1,000 should contact [email protected] to learn more about how to make large donations and the donation benefits.
Visit Gofundme.com/believeinezz to donate to this project now!