If you haven’t met George, you should! He’s the guy with the warm smile waiting to share a meal and perhaps a story or two with those who visit Huntsville’s shelter for men.
The shelter is still awaiting an occupancy permit for four beds, although it has been approved for eight, explained the founder of the Table Soup Kitchen Foundation, Heather Berg. She said three shelter managers have been hired and work continues to convert the 16 beds originally proposed down to eight. She’s hopeful that the shelter’s official inauguration will come soon. In the meantime, George waits patiently.
George, the bronze sculpture, was created by local artist Brenda Wainman Goulet and all the stone work was created by local artist Rudi Stade.
George is the lifelike bronze sculpture created by the talented Brenda Wainman Goulet. He sits on a stone bench and table created by the equally talented stone artist Rudi Stade.
“The men’s shelter has been such a community effort,” said Wainman Goulet. “We really wanted it to be a little different from other places.”
She said the idea behind George is to welcome visitors and create a sense of community.
“Everyone has done so much to make this place happen so he’s just sort of the welcoming man,” she laughed. The name George came about because everyone seems to know a George or have a family member named George, so the name stuck.
Wainman Goulet tried to envision what someone using the shelter might look like. “I was thinking perhaps an older gentleman so when I put a beard on him I thought, I don’t want to make him too rough looking and so he got a bit of a trimmed beard and a warm face and warm eyes.” She said it was refreshing to be able to create a man who did not have to look like anyone in particular and so George, who weighs 260 pounds, came to be.
“For once it was really nice not to have him look like anyone in particular – especially someone who has passed away, which is normally what my subject matter is and relying on photographs from here and there and everywhere.”
If George looks familiar to some that’s because work on George began about a year ago and during that time Wainman Goulet moved from her home of 30 years on Limberlost Road to Port Sydney overlooking Mary Lake. “So he moved here with me for a little while and was on my front lawn.”
The work of Wainman Goulet and Stade was commissioned by private donors who want to remain anonymous.
“It was their idea really that they wanted this to be something that was different than perhaps other shelters and that it have a real classiness to it,” said Wainman Goulet.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the shelter once it opens is asked to email [email protected]. A training session is scheduled to take place at the shelter located at 11 Hanes Street on Saturday, October 29 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
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