ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 19, 1997 TAG: 9704210019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS THE ROANOKE TIMES
Dedication of memorial to civil rights pioneer will be delayed a month or so.
Charles Schaeffer will still have his day, just not as soon as his modern-day champions thought.
Organizers say an event to dedicate a new bust of the 19th-century New River Valley civil rights leader, originally scheduled for Sunday, will be delayed for a month or so.
The process of laminating the bust of Schaeffer sculpted by Blacksburg artist Larry Bechtel is taking longer than anticipated, and won't be completed for another three or four weeks.
Nonetheless, Bechtel and Nannie B. Hairston of Christiansburg's Schaeffer Memorial Baptist Church are moving ahead with their planning of a public celebration.
The bronze bust will be mounted on a granite pedestal and placed on the church grounds in a memory garden, thanks to local contributors and their financial support of the project.
Bechtel completed a clay sculpture of Schaeffer earlier this year and offered it to the church. Neither the artist nor the church had enough money to have the bust bronzed, however.
Donors responded generously to a public appeal for help. Terri Welch, manager of Roselawn Memory Gardens, offered to cover the cost of bronzing the sculpture. Others sent enough money to stage the event, landscape the site and fund a plaque that will bear their names.
"It's been incredible and wonderful," Bechtel said of the support.
Donors will receive personal invitations to the ceremony, and the public will also be invited. Bechtel said he expects the rescheduled date will be on a June weekend.
The exact date will be announced soon, he added.
For certain the event will occur at the Schaeffer Memorial Baptist Church on High Street, atop the local ridge Schaeffer named Zion Hill.
Schaeffer was a Pennsylvanian and ex-Union soldier who came here in 1866 to head the regional Freedmen's Bureau office. Between then and his 1899 death, he founded Christiansburg Institute, a public academy for black students, in addition to the church that bears his name and a number of other local black churches.
Hairston has located relatives of Schaeffer who plan to attend the dedication ceremony. The unveiling will also include music, speeches and a tour of the church and the historic Hill School, which is located next door.
The Hill School - Christiansburg Institute's original site - is still used as a community center.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB