The recast Statue of Liberty, atop a new pedestal and surrounded by a plaza of inscribed bricks, will be rededicated during a daylong celebration Saturday.

The Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band will start the celebration at 11 a.m. Arts and crafts, and food vendors will be set up between the new plaza and the Bathhouse. Boy Scouts will demonstrate activities toward earning badges.

The statue will be unveiled during a ceremony at 1:30 p.m.

Local troops of Cub Scouts, Sea Scouts, Boy and Girl Scouts will present colors. Scouts from the original 1952 dedication will also attend.

The Yankee Clipper, of Sea Scouts group Ship 97, will be anchored off shore. The Leschi, the fire boat from the waterfront Station 5, will be there if not called away on emergency.

Mary Krainick, from Hannah, Wash. outside Yakima, will sing the Star Spangled Banner.

Mike Gregoire, husband of Governor Chris Gregoire will speak, along with City Council member and Alki resident Tom Rasmussen, and Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent Tim Gallagher.

After the ribbon cutting, people will eat cake and search for their inscribed bricks on the plaza.

Mood Swings will provide music during the afternoon.

Ken Burns' documentary, "American Stories: The Statue of Liberty," will play continuously in the painting room at the Alki Bathhouse.

People may write a note to be placed in a time capsule, to be buried later. They may also be interviewed - answering, "What liberty means to me," or retelling a memory including the statue - which will be recorded on CD and put in the time capsule.

At 6:30 p.m., Girl Scouts will light 200 luminaria candles around the plaza, and at 7:30 p.m. Jeanette Alexander will perform a sunset concert on keyboard and electric violin.

About 200 of the miniature Statues of Liberty were originally cast in 1949 and through the early 1950s. They were the idea of Kansas City businessman, Jack Whitaker, who was Scout Commissioner of the Kansas City Area Council. The statues were sold to Boy Scout troops across 39 states and several territories as part of the Boy Scout campaign, "Strengthen the Arm of Liberty," a celebration of the 40th year of Scouts in 1948.

The 1/18th scale statues were made from copper sheets, 8 feet 4 inches tall, weighing 290 pounds, and had cost $350, plus freight.

The Statue of Liberty at Alki Beach was originally dedicated Feb. 23, 1952, also a Saturday. The statue was a gift from Reginald H. Parsons, the first president of the local Chief Sealth Boy Scout Council.

Over 2,000 Cub, Sea and Boy Scouts attended the dedication. A color guard presented 68 American flags. Four Sea Scouts, from local Ship 97, unveiled the statue. Their boat, the Yankee Clipper, was anchored off shore.

William H. Creech, the Boy Scout council president at the time, spoke, as did Mayor William F. Devin.

A metal box was enclosed in the pedestal base which, among other things, contained the names of 5,000 Scouts who had won fellowship awards. Plans were made to open the time capsule 48 years in the future.

When it was opened in July 2000, most of the contents had deteriorated.

Only a hundred of these statues remain. The one at Alki Beach had weathered badly and had been repeatedly vandalized. It was knocked off the pedestal in 1975, the arm torn off and the rays broken from the crown in 1996, and the repaired rays stolen again in 2005.

Northwest Programs for the Arts raised money in 2005 to have the statue recast in bronze, but faltered while collecting funds for a new pedestal. The original statue is displayed in the Log House Museum.

Paul and Libby Carr formed the Seattle Statue of Liberty Plaza Project committee in June 2007, selling inscribed bricks, bench plaques and landscape markers. The recast statue was returned to the old pedestal in a ceremony last September, and Mayor Greg Nickels pledged $50,000 from the city for a new pedestal and plaza. Urban Sparks, a community organization, provided non-profit status.

In nine months, the Carrs raised over $260,000.

Architects Chris Ezzell, of E Workshop, and Matt Hutchins, of Cast Architecture, volunteered to design the plaza and new pedestal. Susan Black and Associates drew the construction documents from their design. To expedite construction, Seattle Parks and Recreation didn't ask for independent bids, but acted as its own general contractor, with Senior Project Manager Patrick Donahue acting as coordinator.

Matthew G. Miller is a freelance writer living in the Admiral District. He may be contacted through wseditor@robinsonnews.com.