Stompin' Tom Connors sculpture unveiled in Sudbury

As the Northern Lights Festival Boral kicked off in Sudbury on Friday night, a life-sized bronze sculpture of Stompin' Tom Connors was unveiled to the crowd.

The preview of the statue will continue until Saturday, and later this year, the sculpture will be permanently placed in downtown Sudbury.

Details about the permanent location are still being worked out with the city, Downtown Sudbury BIA executive director Maureen Luoma said.

"We have a couple of sites in mind," she said.

The sculpture is complete, but funds are still being raised to pay for the project, Luoma said. About $13,000 still needs to be fundraised, a goal Luoma is confident can be achieved.

"It will all be raised one way or another," she said.

Talk about Friday night's unveiling is already prompting calls frompeople looking to donate, Luoma said.

The discussion to have a bronze sculpture of Stompin' Tom started in 2013, during discussions on the downtown master plan for Sudbury, she said.

"We were sitting at one of the roundtable sessions [and] there were probably five or six roundtables having [a] discussion and probably at least three of those tables [wanted to create]a statue of Stompin' Tom Connors," she said.

"That discussion happened just around the time when he had passed away."

The sculpture was done by Tyler Fauvelle, who is based in Lively.