Remember the statue of legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson that was stolen and later found in essentially scraps? Well, it looks like it’s going to be replaced, with the help of people in the Wichita, Kansas community.
Nearly a week after the statue was taken and destroyed, a fundraiser has been started by League 42, a youth baseball league that plays its games at the park where the statue was stolen.
In only four days of fundraising, the community has already raised nearly $180,000, blowing past its goal of raising $175,000 to replace the Robinson’s statue.
More from League 42’s GoFundMe:
On behalf of League 42, and our Executive Director, Bob Lutz, I am reaching out to the public to help us replace our beloved Jackie Robinson statue. Money donated will go directly to this cause. Any donations that exceed our goal will be put to use to fund our operational needs, including our four education programs.
A fundraiser is required because the pieces of the statue that were found are considered “not salvageable at this time.”
The statue is also important to the youth baseball league because it’s named after Robinson’s iconic uniform number with the Brooklyn Dodgers, 42.
In the case of who is responsible for the statue’s destruction, local authorities are still searching for a suspect. Although surveillance footage showed an unidentified person cut the statue down by the ankles and put it in the back of a truck before leaving the scene, they haven’t identified who that person was.
During a Tuesday press conference, City of Wichita Council Member Brandon Johnson said, “We will make sure that we find a way to get that statue back. We will continue to invest in this community, and this tragic incident will not remove that hope that we all have for the area.”