WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - "John was one of my favorites, he was a great down to Earth guy from Wichita,” said Tony Workman, general manager of Art Castings of Colorado.
Workman remembers John Parsons, the artist behind League 42’s Jackie Robinson statue, fondly- and he has taken special care of the original molds for the Jackie Robinson statue.
“It’s really, in the big scheme of things, not that big of a deal to reproduce the bronze, because we do have the original molds. If the molds would have been damaged or destroyed then it would have been a little bit tougher,” said Workman.
After the Jackie Robinson statue was stolen a week ago and later found burned and dismantled, Wichitans were worried if they would ever see it again.
But rest assured, once Art Castings of Colorado receives the order, they will begin the 9 step process to rebuild Jackie Robinson.
“If the Jackie Robinson piece was the only piece we were doing, it would take about 6-8 weeks but we have quite a few employees and stay very busy. I would say at minimum it’ll be about 6 months once we receive that order,” said Workman.
A lot goes into the casting process- wax, a gating system, ceramic shell, and almost three hundred pounds of molten metal.
“It's a very labor intensive process, takes a lot of time, a lot of skilled individuals, there’s a reason they are not inexpensive,” said Workman.
But money is not a concern. The GoFundMe has raised more than $182,000 which is more than enough for the new statue.
Jackie Robinson means a lot to the community of Wichita, but his legacy touches all parts of the country.
“I’ve played sports my whole life and I’ve known about Jackie Robinson my whole life, you know, we do a lot of life sized sculptures for a lot of people but once in a while you get a piece where its someone you admire, or someone you look up to and I just think its really cool,” said Workman.
Workman says Wichitans will be very happy with the new statue when it is unveiled in the coming months, and promises it will look just like the last one.