Sandy Lake works to restore generations-old angel statues

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This article was published 10/11/2022 (1269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Even angels need help sometimes, it seems, as the community of Sandy Lake works to restore four angel statues that have looked over the town for generations.

For decades, four concrete trumpeting angels have stood atop a bell tower beside the Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church on Sandy Lake’s Main Street.

“They are the centre of our community,” said Sandy Lake resident Linda Lewandoski, who is the lead fundraiser for the Save Our Angels project.

Lewandoski said the bell tower and angels are a fixture in Sandy Lake and reflect Ukrainian culture and heritage.

According to a Sandy Lake history book, Ukrainian immigrants began to arrive in the area as early as 1899. The Holy Ghost parish was formed in 1907, and plans were made to build a church, which was constructed in 1911 and replaced by a new one in the 1930s.

The angels are the main landmark for Sandy Lake, Lewandoski said, and have drawn the attention of tourists who stop to take photographs.

The history surrounding the angels and their bell tower perch is a little cloudy. Lewandoski said she has asked her 96-year-old mother and clergy about the tower and its angels, but it’s still not clear when the structure and statues were erected.

It could be that the stand-alone structure was built to accompany the original church built at the site, which burned down, Lewandoski said, and the tower escaped harm and remained when the current church was built in 1937. Or, she said, it’s possible the bell tower was built when the current church was.

And so, it’s also not known when the angels were first placed on the tower, except that they’ve watched over the town for at least 85 years, as long as the current church has stood.

“We don’t know where they came from,” Lewandoski said of the angels.

Now, however, after years of watching over the people of Sandy Lake, weather has left the angels looking drab and they’re in need of being cleaned and painted. Their original paint is flaking, and one has suffered heavy damage and needs some reconstruction. The bell tower they stand on also needs repair, and its dome roof may need to be removed by a crane to allow that work.

Despite not knowing their precise origins, it looks like repairing the angels won’t be a problem.

“We were very fortunate because we found an artist that will restore them to the original state in Ste-Geneviève,” Lewandoski said. “He has restored the identical angels at the Cooks Creek church.

“We were very fortunate to find him because people that do things like that are very rare.”

The Sandy Lake angels, each weighing around 300 pounds, have been lowered from the tower using a telehandler and readied for transport to the studio of artist Robert Freynet, who will repair, clean, sand, and paint the angels in their original colours of blue, gold and white — blue and gold being the colours of Ukraine.

Freynet, who studied fine arts in France, has experience in sculpting and statuary restoration. And, it so happens that he previously restored identical angels that stand outside the Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield, Man., which was also built in the 1930s.

“Those angels are from the same mould, and they brought me those angels pretty well in the same condition that these seem to be,” Freynet said.

Besides the priming and painting each angel will need, Freynet said, one has damaged wings that may need reconstructive surgery, perhaps using pins or wire mesh as a base for new concrete.

“It will be a fun winter project for me,” said Freynet, who estimates the angels to be five to six feet tall, including their wings. “You know, tender loving care and breathe new life into these statues.”

Lewandoski said the estimated cost for restoring all four angels is $13,000, and fundraising has so far gathered half of that cost.

It is hoped that the angels will return to Sandy Lake sometime in the spring, Lewandoski said, but it’s not known when they can return to their rightful places on the tower as it’s unclear when the work on the tower will be done or what that expense might be.

Lewandoski said she has been tracking down the descendants of pioneers who were laid to rest in the church’s cemetery to see if they will donate. She has found a number of them and said “the response has been fantastic.” Many are Sandy Lake area residents, but Lewandoski said she has also found descendants in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and the United States.

For more information or to donate, email saveourangelsproject@gmail.com.

Sandy Lake is about 80 kilometres north of Brandon.

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