COOPER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — June 7, 2018 will mark two years since Charles Pickett Jr.drove his pickup truck into a group of cyclists in Kalamazoo County, killing five of them and seriously injuring four others.
Local sculptor Joshua Diedrich was commissioned to create a permanent memorial for the victims, which will be unveiled on the two-year anniversary Thursday.
Diedrich wears many hats when he’s tapped to create such a tribute.
“I mean, there’s an aspect to this job that’s a little bit like being a priest, a little bit like being a mortician, a little bit like being a landscape architect,” he told 24 Hour News 8.
Diedrich has worked on some well-known pieces, like Western Michigan University’s Gathering Tree sculpture. But designing a permanent memorial for the victims and survivors of the Cooper Township crash was a new experience.
“This level of emotional tension, this level of importance to that many people — I’ve never really had to deal with that before,” he said. “It’s usually one family commemorating their father, or their son, or their pet or something along those lines.”
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