Copenhagen woman building community pavilion to honor late husband

Jul. 6—COPENHAGEN — Every day since she lost her husband of 42 years to cancer in January 2019, Shari A. Simmons has found ways, large and small, to honor him and their community. A few months ago, she found the perfect way to leave a lasting memorial — a public pavilion in the park.

In April, Mrs. Simmons told the Copenhagen Village Board she was interested in building a pavilion in the village park on Main Street next to the Deer River. She would do all of the work and all that she asked was that it be named in honor of her Ted — Theodore A. Simmons.

"If my plan works, it should be pretty cool," Mrs. Simmons said. "I just want to give back. People were good when Ted passed away and I always felt guilty about the money they raised. I do a lot of anonymous donations through GoFundMe pages and things like that, but what our community needs is something positive, something good. I just want to do something good."

The idea for the pavilion came from listening to the challenges faced by the community service group Copenhagen Cares, established last year to lead annual events like the Christmas parade and come up with other community-focused activities. The group has needed a place to hold events.

She decided helping them help the community, while also providing local residents something directly, was the perfect way for her to give back.

"Copenhagen Cares is doing really great stuff and every time they have something they always need to rent a tent or go find a tent or stuff like that," she said. "This will be a place they can have events — if they want to have a craft fair there, if they want to have a farm market there or an ice cream social — that will be a place for them to have it."

Although at first she imagined a simple pole-barn structure, discussions with her son, Scott J. Simmons, led to the final concept — a pole-and-beam structure with a twist.

"It's going to be pretty amazing, actually ... a little nicer than your average pole barn," Mrs. Simmons said. "In the middle where a beam comes up through I'm going to have a big tree trunk."

Her son and two of his chain saw-carving comrades who will be visiting the north country for the Jefferson County Fair and Woodsmen's Field Days will work together to carve art into the center pole. At this point there is no set design, but Mrs. Simmons and Scott are open to ideas.

Over the past seven days, the project has been moving forward quickly.

On June 27, Mrs. Simmons received the building permit and she found out Tuesday that she was approved by the Pratt Northam Foundation for a $10,000 grant.

The grant has alleviated some pressure, especially because for Mrs. Simmons, one idea begets another which ultimately requires a bigger budget.

Some of those ideas have included the design change, switching from a gravel base to the poured cement base, adding two metal barbecues and providing a face-lift to the garage at the park that contains "lots of things" belonging to the village.

"It's going to be a place where Copenhagen Cares can put their flower pots and their Christmas decorations and because it's got all of that old tin on it (the roof) — it's a beautiful building — it just needs a little love," she said.

The support she has received from other community members donating their time, talents and connections has been instrumental in bringing the project together.

A local architect, Matthew J. Cooper, donated his time and skills to design the 30-foot by 30-foot pavilion, helping Mrs. Simmons secure the engineer stamp on the design required for the building permit. After she spoke to people about the expletives and vulgar graffiti emblazoned on the bridge supports that can be seen from the park, all that remained was a newly painted gray wall the next time she returned, giving the whole park a fresh new view along with its fresh new look.

Even in its earliest days, the pavilion project got its momentum from the community when Mrs. Simmons spoke to the land owners adjacent to the park about her idea.

"I said I want you to all be on board with it because if the people come, they'll be kind of in your back yard. The first guy said, 'Oh Shari, can you please clean up this area here? The burdocks grow 10 feet tall,' and I said no problem, I've got this for you."

On Tuesday, her son brought a skid steer to the park to clear out unwanted brush and burdocks and Mrs. Simmons expects the concrete pad to be poured this week.

Even the trade workers and materials for the project are a result of the community. Amish masonry and carpentry crews will build the pavilion using locally grown and Amish-milled lumber and cement purchased in the area. The landscaping will be a community project, too.

"I'm not hiring some big, fancy landscaper. There's a whole bunch of gardening girls around town — they're always giving plants away — I want it just to be irises, daylilies, just natural and easy," she said.

The village board — which had already invested in a bicycle rack and picnic tables made by students through a "facade and streetscapes" grant program in Lewis County — is also excited about Mrs. Simmons's initiative.

"She's awesome," village Trustee Kimberly Vogt said. "She's ready to roll ... When she gets something in her head to do, she's on it."

Village leaders hope that Mrs. Simmons inspires other community members to take action.

"The village board is all in on whatever you want to do, just tell us what you want," Mrs. Vogt said. "We wrote in our recommendation to Pratt Northam for the grant that we couldn't be more proud to support such a community-driven project, because that's what it truly is. Community-driven and supported."

As long as it is also community-utilized, then Mrs. Simmons will consider the project a success.

"That's my goal, for it to be a place where people can gather," she said. "It's going to be here for everybody to use ... something to be proud of."

To share ideas for the pavilion's center pole carving, email Scott Simmons at burrvillepowerequipment@gmail.com. To volunteer or get more information, email Mrs. Simmons at shari154@aol.com.