Parish Raises Money To Repair Desecrated Statue

In the aftermath of a tragic attack on the Saint Anne and Mary statues at Saints Joachim and Anne Roman Catholic Church in Queens Village, statue restoration contractors Georgina “George” Ferrandi and Emily MacDonald-Korth are there to — quite literally — pick up the pieces.
According to police, Kevin Davey, who lived near the church, damaged the face of the Saint Anne statue back in July with a tire iron and afterward shot the head off with a shotgun.
The hand of the young Mary statue was also knocked off. When police responded, Davey shot the two officers, who were wearing bulletproof vests. One of the officers returned fire, hitting Davey several times. All three are expected to recover.
The cost of the statue repairs will total $12,500 of which insurance will cover $3,500, according to Monsignor Joseph Malagreca. The remaining balance will be raised through outside donations and parishioners.
“When people walk by the statue there is a sad and emotionally feeling, people just want to help,” Msgr. Malagreca said. “Parishioners and other people have been writing letters and sending checks in the mail for the past few weeks.”
Unfortunately, the restoration of the statue is not going to be as simple as Ferrandi and MacDonald-Korth once hoped. They are both specialists in statue repair and represent a Brooklyn-based business called Brooklyn Saints, which handles statue restoration.
“I found out what happened from Georgie [Ferrandi] and I was shocked and sad that somebody would want to hurt something that means so much to other people in the neighborhood,” said MacDonald-Korth.
The extensive damage to St. Anne’s head will force the contractors to build an entirely new one.
“I was hoping to smooth out the marks from the tire iron and fill in the holes with mortar, but because of a bad structural crack, that will make my original plan impossible,” said Ferrandi. “The back-up plan is to make a mold of the face and cast a new one. It is going to match in color and look just like the original.”
According to Msgr. Malagreca, Davey’s younger sister attended the church’s school across the street and he is familiar with the family.
Also to date, parish officials said the Davey family has not reached out to the church as yet.
Repairs are expected to last until mid-September, and the community is both grateful and hopeful over the work Ferrandi and MacDonald-Korth are providing.
“Since we have been here people have stopped us everyday just to say thank you,” said Ferrandi. “Even the bus driver stopped and beeped the horn until we looked over and he screamed ‘thank you,’ so we know what this means to people and we’re really proud to just be a part of that.”
David Cargin is a freelance writer.