BOYS TOWN, Neb. (AP) — Boys Town National Headquarters will soon have a new statue to recognize that hardship isn’t exclusive to one race or gender.
Omaha sculptor Matthew Placzek is creating a new version of a statue of two brothers that currently sits at the entrance. The new statue is of an older boy carrying a smaller girl on his back. The girl is white, and the young man is black.
Boys Town was founded by Father Edward J. Flanagan in 1917 as an orphanage for boys. It has since grown into a pioneering nonprofit organization for troubled youth with 400 boys and girls living on the Omaha campus and about a dozen facilities around the U.S.
The new statue will be installed on the campus when the organization celebrates its 100th anniversary next year.