VILLAGE OF WESTON, WI (WSAU) — Officials with Wausau Metro Strong and the Wausau Region Chamber of Commerce gathered to hold a ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony for a memorial to the victims of the March 22nd, 2017 shooting incidents on Wednesday in Weston’s Kennedy Park.
The four-sided memorial features images and information about each of the victims- Detective Jason Weiland, Dianne Look, Karen Barclay, and Sara Quirt Sann- along with an eternal flame design at the top.
Cassandra Ambrosius, the organizer behind the annual Run to Remember, said the pillar now stands to honor those who were lost that day and the community that rallied behind their families. “This moment [brought] some of the worst times our communities have ever faced, but it also created these beautiful moments where people came together and showed how deep their hearts are.”
Former Everest Metro Police Chief Wally Sparks lived through the incident firsthand and says the memorial will make sure the memory of what was lost that day is never forgotten. “Someone can come in and walk by this monument saying ‘I wonder what that is?’ can [go to] any gas station, restaurant, or talk to any person on the street, they will say ‘yeah, it was a bad day here. We lost four valuable community members.’”
“I don’ think it’s ever going to disappear from the community,” he added. “It had a life-long impact on a lot of people. It still hurts, a lot of people still deal with some of the difficulties that transpired from that.”
But Sparks says the scores of people that turned out for Wednesday’s dedication helps make some of that hurt easier to manage. “Coming back together as a family, as a community, it’s hard to quantify how important that is but it is a valuable component to healing.”
Sparks currently serves as President of the Village Board in Weston and adds he was honored to help Wausau Metro Strong with the permitting process to place the memorial in the park.
Ambrosius says the memorial also shows just how fragile life can be, and how strong people can be in the face of danger. “Dianne and Karen helped get a woman out of the bank and ended up saving her life. Sara was representing her in a horrible situation and Jason was just protecting our community. Each of them was just doing their job that day, and their lives were taken.
“It’s senseless and tragic but it showed how brave people can be, and how we can come together,” she added.
Attorney General Josh Kaul spoke during the ceremony and thanked Wausau Metro Strong for their efforts to make the community safer in the months that followed the shooting. “I think any group that is working to make a difference in the community, that’s bringing people together to make a community safer [does] help make a community stronger. It’s inspiring to see the work that they are doing.”
Kaul went on to praise those behind the memorial, saying it’s important to recognize the family and community members that were lost that day.
Others in attendance were Marathon County Sheriff Scott Parks, Wausau Police Cheif Ben Bliven, and Everest Metro Police Chief Clay Schulz.
The memorial sits at the east end of the park, directly across the street from the entrance to D.C. Everest Senior High and Greenheck Fieldhouse. Ambrosius says the structure itself cost around $25,000, most of which was raised by the first Run to Remember in 2018. Most of the site preparation and installation of the memorial were donated by local contractors.
The memorial will now become a permanent fixture on the Run to Remember route. Ambrosius says funds from future races will go towards the Wausau Metro Strong general fund and maintenance of the fixture.
