MURPHYSBORO - Since its formation in 2007, the nonprofit, civic group Friends of Murphysboro has raised money for minor revitalization work at Riverside Park, the seventh oldest municipal park in Illinois.

Now, a modernly designed and sculpted bench sits in front of the park band shell.

It's an example of Friends moving on to bigger and better things to make the park more user-friendly.

"It's definitely the first thing we've actually given to the park," Friends co-founder Brad Fager said about the bench, which is a memorial to his grandmother, Chresta Lockard, who died in February 2008.

Fager said as Friends began to form, he remembered telling Lockard about it.

"I told her we wanted to start hosting events at the Riverside Park band shell and raise money to benefit the park," Fager said.

A few weeks later, Lockard sent her grandson a personal check for $100 that was made out to The Friends of Murphysboro.

"She told me it was a good idea, and she thought the donation could help us get started," Fager said.

Lockard died before she could see Friends undertake successful park endeavors such as Shawnee Hills Wine Trail & Arts Festival that has become a popular Memorial Day weekend activity. Friends has also raised money for a Remembrance Walk honoring veterans with bricks and helped with the planning of a dog park that will be the first of its kind in Southern Illinois. The group has also helped host and plan free movie nights at the band shell.

"I wish I could tell her about all the volunteers who have worked hard on all the projects and have become good friends. I have always felt that this all started with our first donation from our first friend, my grandma," Fager said.

With money collected by his mother, Lea Ann Fager, and his two aunts, Sue Lynn Johnson and Janet Cramer, at Lockard's funeral, Fager said he got the idea to build a bench at the park in honor of her. He enlisted the help of a high school friend, Jeremy Fricke with Creative Concrete Design, and a local blacksmith, John Medwedeff, who is known for his steel sculptures, in designing and constructing the bench.

"Brad and I talked over the winter about doing this. We built the steel base in my studio," Medwedeff said.

After talking with Fricke about the desired functionality and artistic flare that Fager envisioned for the bench, his friend delivered.

"I showed him (Fricke) the ideas for the base and I could see the excitement in his eyes. He showed me all the new options available with concrete today," Fager said, commending them in a later statement saying "they went over the top" with their time, effort and materials at a minimal cost.

The Fager family came together on a Sunday in late May to assemble the bench at its current site. It was a time for reflection and introspection. Fager now sees Friends of Murphysboro in particular as a larger manifestation of his late grandmother.

"Grandma Lockard wasn't always a woman of many words, but I always found her a strong person of actions," Fager said.

scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com

618-351-5076