“Ozzie”, a duck which made his home in Stanley Park for several years, was brutally killed but will live on as a life-sized bronze statue in the park’s pond area.
A park volunteer, Donna Herman of Montgomery Road, has organized a drive to create a statue to memorialize the duck who became more well-known throughout the community last November when it was stomped to death, apparently by a 15-year-old city boy who was charged in Holyoke Juvenile Court, within days of the crime, for cruelty to an animal and for killing an animal. The outcomes of cases in juvenile court are not made public.
Herman said at that time that she found the duck in a parking lot at the park about three years ago and said it joined the flock of fowl at the park and never left. Workers at the park named it Ozzie
Herman said that Ozzie, a Muscovy duck which is native to tropical areas in Central and South America, thought he was a goose and stayed with the flock that lives in the park
Herman said that Ozzie was injured by a visiting dog and park volunteers fed it through that winter. She said that after Ozzie learned where to go for grain he never left the park.
Ozzie was buried promptly and Robert McKean, the managing director of the park said “He’s laying right next to a cat named Stanley” who was a park mascot years ago. Ozzie was provided with a grave marker by an anonymous benefactor.
But Ozzie left a legacy at the park and in the city.
After his death, local outrage fueled a drive to fund surveillance cameras which have been installed in the duck pond area and can be viewed by visiting www.stanleypark.org, the park’s web site.
In addition, Westfield High School graduates Amelia Erwin and Joanna Janik have reason to think fondly of Ozzie as they recently were awarded scholarships for their higher education by Citizens Scholarship Foundation of Westfield which were funded by contributions donated in Ozzie’s memory. Similar scholarships will be awarded next year.
But Herman’s effort will bring a tangible memorial to the duck pond at the park.
“We’ll have little Ozzie back by the pond for the children to touch” she said and added that local children can “take ownership” of the statue by contributing their pennies to the project.
Herman said that she worked with Professor Jamie Wainright of the art department at Westfield State University in her effort to design a statue. As a result, Matt Johnson and Keith Hollingworth of the WSU Art Department have created a sculpture of the duck and will make a cast for the bronze sculpture which will be installed near the pond where Ozzie lived.
Herman said that, so far, the work on the project has been donated and said that she has located a foundry, in California, which will donate the bronze and make the casting but she said money will be needed for shipping costs.
She said she expects the costs to ship the cast to California and to ship the casting back to the city will be “less than a thousand dollars” and invites the local children to bring “Pennies for Ozzie” to the park office.
She said that she has received permission from the school department to post a flier in each elementary school classroom in the city and said she is also “hoping to put out a few penny jars in retail establishments in the city.”
Herman said that she believes that the sculpture may be installed and unveiled “before the park closes for the season” this year.
