Coupeville gets a youthful fountain

"The new fountain statue and pond in Cook's Corner park in Coupeville will be dedicated and given to the town by the Coupeville Garden Club on Saturday, Aug. 26, at 2 p.m. Punch and cookies will be served and the public is invited. "

“Langley has its famous boy and dog statue. Oak Harbor has a little Dutch sweeper. And now Coupeville has its own bronze boy. The statue of a pixie-faced child, upending a bucket of water over his head, was installed this week in the small triangular park called Cook’s Corner at the corner of Ninth and Main streets. The bronze figure, which is also a fountain and stands in the middle of a newly-built pond, is a gift to the town from the Coupeville Garden Club.This is going to be the perfect place for a Kodak moment, Mayor Nancy Conard said Tuesday, surveying the new landmark. I hope it will be as popular with visitors as the boy and dog statue in Langley.We just thought it would be nice for the town, sculpture committee member Dorothy Russell said. The statue of a 5-year-old boy was named Randy by the sculptor, Jim Demetro, of Vancouver, Wash.Putting up a statue for Coupeville has been a six-year project, which started with plans to give the town a bronze sea captain and gradually evolved into the boy and fountain.The club raised $18,500 to pay for the statue, pond and installation and there’s still money in the fund, Russell said, so the club is discussing the possibility of adding another figure to the pond. More sitting rocks will be added, too. Members of the garden club already maintain the landscaping in Cook’s Corner, named for the late Eileen Cook, a charter member of the Coupeville Garden Club which began in 1961. Now they are busy filling the beds around the pond with plants and flowers. The club’s 40 or so members sold a lot of pansies and cupcakes to raise the money for the statue, said Coupeville Garden Club president Milly Hardy. One of the club’s main purposes is beautifying Coupeville, Hardy said. It takes care of the tubs and barrels of flowers that line the streets, a number of landscaped areas and Front Street’s hanging baskets.For information about the club’s projects, or to make a donation toward landscaping or maintenance for the pond, call sculpture committee chair Sally Hart, at 678-2277, or Russell at 678-3531. “