So I was walking around my neighborhood and I live 5 houses down from the Great Kills Little League and I found this statue. It’s a memorial to a teenager named Devin McQueen  who died last year(may he Rest in Peace). I’m not sure who he was or how he died, but based on the location right by the field I would imagine that he was a member of the League.  The statue also has an inscription on it, which says “The Strength of a Giant”. I’m not sure if that’s the title of the memorial, or a quote to describe who Devin McQueen was. I don’t know what happened to him, as it doesn’t say on the statue, at least as far as I can glean. However, the statue does depict a child who I presume to be David McQueen pushing a massive boulder. This makes me think that David McQueen might have spent a lot of his life battling some sort illness. But that’s just a hypothesis and I truly don’t know what actually happened.

I don’t think that this statue necessarily reflects my neighborhood, as it is a statue for a single person, and it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with my neighborhood. It probably has much more significance to the Little League than the actual neighborhood, though it is possible that David McQueen was from my neighborhood and I didn’t know, but I can’t say for sure.

I think that this piece does speak to me on some level. I didn’t know David McQueen, but any death is a tragedy, especially a young teenager. I can’t really relate to this situation on any level, as I can’t recall loosing someone who was super close to me, but I still think that it is an absolute tragedy what happened to David McQueen, and I really hope that his family and loved ones are doing well. I think that placing the statue to honor David McQueen was an extremely kind gesture, and in my opinion it’s a really great thing to do and a statue that deserves to be where it is. May David McQueen Rest in Peace.