by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
After several years of hope, planning and fundraisers, an Angel of Hope in memory of BriAnna Kruzel and other dearly-departed youth now graces a paved terrace at the edge of Lake Francis in south Sartell.
A dedication ceremony for the bronze angel memorial monument took place Dec. 6 with visitors placing white flowers at the statue’s base and lighting candles. BriAnna’s parents, Randy and Tami Kruzel, thanked everyone for participating and for supporting the Angel of Hope effort during the past few years.
Sartell resident and Sartell High School 2012 graduate BriAnna Kruzel died suddenly at age 18, when she collapsed after walking into her bedroom on Sept. 28, 2013. Her devastated family and friends decided to start a foundation in her honor, an organization dubbed “What Would BriAnna Do?” The foundation has donated funds for scholarships, for school-related organizations and for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Kruzel, who loved to volunteer, was an award-winning Big Sister in that organization – Big Sister of the Year for 2013. She also loved giving time to the Girl Scouts, the Sartell-St. Stephen Community Education program and the Lone Eagle Auto Club.
The Angel of Hope project quickly became one of the WWBD Foundation’s goals. The idea stems from a famous book entitled The Christmas Box, written by Utah advertising executive Richard Paul Evans and self-published in 1993. The book later became a runaway bestseller and a hit TV movie. In the book and movie, a woman mourns the loss of her child while kneeling at the foot of a monument, a child-like angel with upraised wings and arms extended palms upward.
That scene inspired the creation of an Angel of Hope monument, placed in Salt Lake City, in June 1994. Since then, more than 120 Angel of Hope monuments have been placed throughout the world, mostly in the United States. The purpose of the monument is a focal place for those who have lost children of any age, a place to gather for prayers, meditation and fond remembrance. Paving stones at the monument contain etched names of deceased children. Every Dec. 6, at 7 p.m., people gather at the monuments to light candles or to hold other kinds of memorial ceremonies.
The first etched paver placed at the Angel of Hope monument in Sartell was a paver for BriAnna. It reads: This Angel was Donated By: WWBD, Inc. (What Would BriAnna Do?). In Memory of BriAnna Rose Kruzel 1995-2013.
There have already been several more paving stones etched with names at the Angel of Hope in Sartell, including that of Tom Bearson, a Sartell resident who was murdered when he was a beginning college student in Fargo several years ago.
Names can be placed on brick pavers by contacting the City of Sartell on its website under the “Donations” tab. People can purchase pavers, a swing, a bench or a tree, each with a plaque commemorating the name of a deceased loved one.
The Angel of Hope is located near the Chateau Waters senior-apartment complex, right at the edge of Lake Francis south of the Pine Cone Marketplace plaza in south Sartell, just off of Pinecone Road S.
Tami and Randy Kruzel stand by the Angel of Hope monument shortly after its recent installation in south Sartell. The Kruzels, parents of BriAnna Kruzel, who died tragically early at 18, were recently named as Citizens of the Year by the Sartell Area Chamber of Commerce.
BriAnna Kruzel, who died suddenly at age 18, sits for a photo with her mother, Tami on a happy day.
This is the paving stone in memory of BriAnna Kruzel at the base of the Angel of Hope monument.
Workers align the Angel of Hope statue onto its stone foundation at the edge of Lake Francis in late November.
