LAFAYETTE — Santa continued his rounds in the area, appearing Sunday at the Lafayette-Jackson Historical Society for the “Christmas in the Village” event.
He was met by dozens of children who got a chance to tell him what they wanted for Christmas.
“This event is a yearly ordeal,” said Amy Joseph, president of the Lafayette-Jackson Historical Society. “We have a horse drawn wagon ride, of which we carol on and of course we have chili soup and all kinds of good food and cookies for the kids. This is a community outreach, trying to get the word out about our community, how involved we are, the historical society is involved in the community and to just get younger people involved so we have younger people joining the club, just bringing a fresh angle to it.”
One of their big projects gets underway Monday, according to the Historical Society.
“We’re taking down the statue, the veterans monument, which has been up there since 1903. It needs some help, the base is crumbling and we’re afraid it might tumble,” said Jennifer Palmer, past president of the Lafayette-Jackson Historical Society.
“We hired a company called Columbus Art and they are going to remove the soldier and the base and take it to Columbus for renovation. We’re going to replace the bottom which is really crumbling and was made of sandstone so its time is up. We’ll replace it with granite stone and we’re hoping to find a time capsule underneath. We don’t know what’s underneath but we’ll find out in the next day or two,” she said.
Scott Spallinger from Spallinger Millwright is bringing in a crane Monday to move the statue and base.
“We are in a fundraising mode right now. We need to raise $120,000 for the entire renovation. So far we’ve acquired about $46,000 and we’re going to put a big push on after Christmas and try and contact some major companies and other organizations that would contribute. We have a large group of people that are involved already, our township trustees and the village council. We’ve talked to the Allen County Commissioners trying to find as much funding as we can,” Palmer said.
If you would like to help donate, you can write to The Monument Fund, P.O. Box 7147 Lafayette, OH 45854.
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