Tony Gwynn statue to be unveiled on Tuesday

The City of Poway will be unveiling the Tony Gwynn Statue and Memorial Plaza on Tuesday.

The dedication ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. and will be held at Lake Poway, 14644 Lake Poway Road. The memorial statue and plaza are near the lake’s baseball field.

Lake Poway will be closed on Monday to safely allow the statue to be installed by crane.

The ceremony will include, along with the unveiling of the statue, Poway High student Summer Scott singing the national anthem and several speakers, including Poway Mayor Steve Vaus; Seth Vandable, the sculptor of the statue; John Boggs, Gwynn’s former agent and longtime friend; and members of the Gwynn family.

Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Enberg will also be in attendance.

Following the unveiling will be light refreshments and a chance for major donors to take a picture with Vandable and the Gwynn family.

Parking at the lake is first-come, first-serve. The event will mostly be standing-room-only but bleachers will be set up in the nearby parking lot.

The statue received its final patina on May 1, according to Vandable, and he will be traveling with it from Texas to Poway for the installation.

Vandable, who was selected from a nationwide search to be the statue artist, said he and his team have been working full-time at the foundry since December casting the statue in bronze and welding it together, as a statue as large as this one must be cast in pieces using huge silicone molds and assembled.

“Casting something this size is a lot of work,” said Vandable, “but I think it turned out great.”

The statue is more than 11 feet tall and shows Gwynn waving to the crowd with one hand while holding a young girl with the other.

Vandable said he is he’s excited to see his piece installed and that working on the statue of Gwynn was “awesome.” “I’m a Tony Gwynn fan even though I’m not from San Diego,” he said.

There was some pressure while working on it, he said, due to how many people were personally invested in it. “There were so many people involved, like the Gwynn family and the mayor, that I want to please them and give them a personal connection to it,” Vandable said. “There’s a lot of emotion in it. I put my heart into it because I want people to connect with it.”

Vandable said he’s also looking forward to seeing the unveiling. “I hope I see a lot of smiles (when it’s unveiled),” he said.

Poway residents and Gwynn fans raised nearly $200,000 in cash donations to build the statue and surrounding plaza. More than a dozen businesses pitched in with materials, equipment and labor valuing more than $100,000 to cover construction-related costs.

Gwynn played 20 seasons for the San Diego Padres. He retired in 2001 and later coached for the San Diego State Aztecs baseball team. He died in 2014 after battling cancer. He was 54.

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