Michael Anderson memorial fund is $45,000 short of goal
Two years after the space shuttle Columbia tragedy that took the lives of seven crew members, the drive to raise money for a memorial to honor Spokane astronaut Lt. Col. Michael Anderson remains $45,000 from its goal, a spokeswoman for the fund-raising campaign said.
The campaign to erect a bronze statue of Anderson was launched last Feb. 1 at Anderson’s church, Morning Star Baptist in northeast Spokane, on the first anniversary of the Columbia disaster. So far, the campaign has raised more than $80,000 toward the $125,000 cost of the statue by local artist Dorothy Fowler, said Jesse Wuerst of the Anderson Memorial Statue Campaign Committee.
The statue is expected to be completed by June to eventually be placed in a main plaza outside a science center also bearing Anderson’s name to be built on the north bank of Riverfront Park.
A scale model of the statue can be viewed on the second floor of River Park Square near Wetzel’s Pretzels.
Though a few corporate sponsors have donated to the memorial, it is hoped that much of the funding will come from a community grass-roots effort, Wuerst said.
“Michael was connected to family and community and we wanted to give everyone a chance to participate in his memorial,” she said. “When you raise money that way it takes longer.”
Last month, African-American churches in the community came together for a gospel music event, which raised $10,000 for the campaign, she said.
Anderson, a native of Eastern Washington, was payload commander aboard the Columbia, which broke apart over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003.
A piece of insulating foam had torn a hole in the shuttle’s left wing seconds after takeoff. As the shuttle re-entered Earth’s atmosphere two weeks later, the hole allowed searing gases to penetrate the wing, destroying the shuttle and killing its entire crew.
Besides Anderson, the Columbia crew included shuttle commander Rick Husband and astronauts William C. McCool, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Ilan Ramon and David Brown.