The Weyburn branch of the Knights of Columbus are happy to announce that the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue has just been repaired for visitors to enjoy.

The statue had been located just east of the Signal Hill Arts Centre parking lot and was recently moved to the south side of the cairn for the park, which was dedicated in August 1967.

The right hand of the statue had been damaged some years ago, and after searching for a business that would be able to replace it, Concrete Elements was identified and agreed to design and attach a new hand, which has now been completed.

This is what the statue looked like before the new hand was attached.

"When Mount St. Mary's was sold the statue was donated to the Knights of Columbus and it was moved from the east side of the building to the Knights of Columbus park on the west side," explained Bernie Kot, a longtime member of the Weyburn Knights of Columbus. "Through the years the one hand had broken off. So we had a new hand put on it and fixed up."

Dave and Loa Titman from Viscount, Saskatchewan were hired to do the delicate job of creating a new hand and applying it to the statue.

"Bernie reached out to us originally back in October and we discussed what needed to be done," Loa Titman told. "We didn't have the opportunity to actually see the statue in person only from the pictures he showed us. We said the statue was too big to move so he cut the broken hand off and mailed it to us. Believe it or not, Canada Post was very efficient, he mailed it on a Monday, and the next day I went to check the mail, and low and behold the parcel was there. So all we had was a very deteriorated hand and all of the fingers were gone. So I basically just had the palm of the hand to work with and the wrist. And the enforcing wires were all sticking out so we had to build those up to make a master of it. Then we did a latex rubber mold of it and then we poured it."

Further cleaning and repairing will be done to the statue and cairn. Eventually, the Weyburn Knights of Columbus hope to be able to acquire a suitable statue of Mary to install on the north side of the cairn as well.

You can listen to the audio file below where Loa Titman explains some of the extra work that she needed to do on the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue.

"This is a religious and heritage statue that we didn't want to see destroyed so we decided to move it and fix it up," expressed Kot. "So it is now open for anyone to come view in the park."

Feel free to visit the Weyburn Knights of Columbus website to keep up with the latest news and information.