The town of Souris has added a new art piece to grace Victoria Park.  

A 13.5 foot tall metal peacock is the newest addition to the town's iconic flock of peacocks.  

Committee member, Leona Perkin, says the idea was inspired by a local Souris resident who was visiting Chilliwack, BC and brought home a postcard of a peacock sculpture with a flower bed as its tail.  The idea has been considered ever since then, and this was the year to finally put that vision into action, with Brandon artist, Chad Hebner, bringing the idea to life. "It looks fantastic!" says Perkin.

Because the 2000 pound sculpture is covered with stainless steel it came at a cost of just over $7000.  A variety of fund-raisers and community support helped to cover the cost, including a grant by the Souris-Glenwood Community Foundation.

"And then one of our former residents and committee member of our Beautification committee, Betty-Jean Kohutt, passed away and her family raffled off one of her beautiful quilts at the Hobby Craft in November and gave us all the money from that raffle," explains Perkin.

The sculpture will keep its stainless steel finish.  "Chad Hebner did spray paint it but did not like the look of it because it's just feathers upon feathers in stainless steel and I think he felt the paint took away from the character of it," she says. "We are going to put flood lights on it with blue-green bulbs."

"It took Chad at least 600 hours to build it. Everyone is driving by and saying how beautiful it is," adds Perkin.  "Yes, its wonderful!"