For SB DA Dennis Stout: Freedom Funds Falter

Dennis Stout knows great things don’t happen overnight, and one of those great things is the Freedom’s Flame monument. Freedom’s Flame Foundation, a Rancho Cucamonga nonprofit formed in 2002, designed bicoastal sculptures depicting the attack on New York’s World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, with the figures of more than 30 civilians and rescue workers. More on Stout

The Freedom’s Flame memorial site was designed to include steel from World Trade Center debris with one sculpture placed in Central Park in Rancho Cucamonga and an identical sculpture in New York.

“This is something that needs to be remembered and not be forgotten,” said Stout, former San Bernardino County district attorney.

“I know that time may pass, and there may be other tragedies that come along, but the response to Sept. 11 is important, the bravery and courage of those who stepped up to do courageous things is what’s important here.”

In 2007, the Rancho Cucamonga City Council approved a resolution to repeal a 2005 resolution designating the park as the site for the 35-foot statue.

Just as soon as the project was rejected, it was picked up by neighboring Ontario.

“When we heard about it, we thought it would be a good fit in Ontario,” said Ontario Councilman Jason Anderson.

The two identical bicoastal statues are estimated to cost $15 million. So far the foundation has raised $250,000.

Stout said he is patient when it comes to building a monument with this type of magnitude.

“Right now the economy is having problems, but I’ve seen cycles like this, and I think we’ll see a change real soon,” said Stout, who is the foundation’s chairman. “It’s hard to say right now when the memorials will happen, but I do know one thing – this will happen.”

Longtime project supporter and Rancho Cucamonga Councilman Sam Spagnolo agrees with Stout: Until the economy turns around the project will be put on the back burner.

“We’re not discouraged, and we know it’s going to take time,” he said. “Look at the Statue of Liberty; it was a decade before it went up, and the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii took just as long before it found a home.”

Anderson said potential homes for the monument include a police or fire department in the New Model Colony of southern Ontario or a park-type setting.

“Although we don’t have a home for the monument yet, we are always looking for an appropriate place for it,” he said.

Spagnolo said he is confident once a designated area for the memorial is announced, doors will open for private donations and from corporations.

With 30 figures designed in each statue, Stout envisions fundraising to happen in the next year with larger corporations sponsoring each figure.

Although Spagnolo was disheartened by Rancho Cucamonga’s vote not to be the host city, he has accepted the notion things don’t always go the way you want.

“That was then and this is now, and just as one door closed, another one opened, and that’s what’s important,” he said.