Families of police officers who died in the line of duty know there is a Memorial for the “Fallen Officer” in Tallahassee, Florida, in the capitol courtyard. The courtyard border is the Senate Building, the House Building, the Capitol Building and the “Old Capitol” Building.

During the 2004 and 2005 legislative sessions I missed this Memorial in the Courtyard. The session is 60 days long. In 2006, I “found” the Memorial. My first question was how I could miss this memorial for two complete legislative sessions. I was in the courtyard every day. I thought about the families who would get a visit to tell them the spouse or father or mother and the living parents of these fallen officers would not be coming home. And that another police person had lost their life in the line of duty. Their name would be etched into the base of this Memorial in the courtyard.

I pondered over this issue and decided that it needed a “draw”. If I missed this memorial that long, other visitors and employees at the capitol were missing the memorial. It needed a draw that would attract attention for every courtyard visitor so that they would not miss this Memorial. I decided that two life sized statues, one officer down and another first responder calling for help would make a good draw to anyone in the courtyard. The first responder has got to be one of the most traumatized. I recall the first responder at my accident on the silo building job. I will never forget him and the moments we waited and talked while waiting for the ambulance. Knowing that this statue concept might not be well received, I proceeded to discus the concept with all of the capitol police. Also, I presented the concept to every police person visiting the session. They all, liked the idea and asked me to go for it. Make it happen was their response and I accepted their direction to proceed.

A budget was drawn up and the cost was $225,000. Michael got Senator Crist to do a resolution naming the Florida Paraplegic Association, Inc. as the party to work with the Department of Management Services. Michael ended up doing most of the administrative work with this Department.

My efforts in raising the money was be letter, photos of the models and requests for money. I sent a lot of letters to what I thought were the right people. My batting average was running “zero”. As the 2008 Legislative session began I told Michael that the fundraising was at zero level. And that he needed do whatever he could to find contacts. Michael had a small miniature of the statues on the 4^th floor. A week or two passed and Michael called to tell me the Police Benevolent Association was interested in the project and asked if they would be able to have a plaque.

The next call from Michael is that the PBA wanted to fund the entire project. The PBA man, John Riveria, was someone that I had contacted by mail. Surprisingly, he had been someone who I tried to reach by both mail and by telephone very early in the fund raising process. Frankly, a great weight was lifted from my shoulders. I was at a point of just locking up the business and going out to civic functions in person to raise the money.

Along the way, Michael came up with an enhancement of the enhancement. This was a small miniature statue, with both a raised letter and a Braille plaque, within easy reach, so that the blind would not be left out of the unveiling of the statues. As the unveiling date drew closer, I was daily in deep thought about the enhancement for the blind. Artists and sculptors have been designing statues and memorials for over 2,000 years and did not think of the blind. In my mind I began to see all statues and memorials around the world being re-visited and all new statues and memorials including the blind.

– Denny R. Wood

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