On Sept. 12, RUSH fans gathered in Port Dalhousie to support the Neil Peart Commemorative Task Force and their fundraising campaign to honour the late drummer with a custom art piece to reside in Lakeside Park.
As a St. Catharines native and local music legend, Peart’s significance to the city cannot be understated.
The mayor of St. Catharines, Mat Siscoe, echoed this sentiment when he spoke on the upcoming memorial project, saying “Neil Peart’s impact on music is immeasurable, but it’s his connection to St. Catharines that makes this memorial so meaningful.”
Peart famously reflects on his memories of growing up in St. Catharines on the RUSH song “Lakeside Park.” The song is based on the Port Dalhousie’s Lakeside Park and beach in St. Catharines’ north end. The speaker wistfully recalls “days of barefoot freedom, racing with the waves / nights of starlit secrets, crackling driftwood flames.”
The song concludes with the realization that “though it’s just a memory, some memories last forever,” signifying the importance of the city to Peart and all of the memories that he made here.
As Peart paid homage to St. Catharines through his music, the city wants to show his immeasurable influence on the community—and this is exactly what the Neil Peart Commemorative Task Force has set out to do.
St. Catharines City Council created the Task Force in 2020 to get input from the fans themselves on the best way the city can memorialize such an important community figure.
The Chair of the Task Force, David DeRocco, emphasizes the necessity of commemorating the drummer’s importance to the city, calling the memorial project “a true testament to the enduring bond between Neil, RUSH fans, and St. Catharines.”
The Task Force is running a fundraising campaign to help make the memorial as best as it can be. The two sponsorship options are Wood Level and Steel Level. A Wood Level sponsorship goes for $500 and includes the option to have up to 250 characters of your own text on the memorial. The Steel Level is $5000 and gives you 50 square inches to put an image and text on the memorial.
The campaign has been met with donations from RushBackstage and Geddy Lee, the lead vocalist and bassist from RUSH.
The campaign is also accepting donations of different amounts via the City of St. Catharines website.
The Neil Peart Commemorative Task Force chose Morgan MacDonald from The Newfoundland Bronze Foundry to create the memorial art piece. A video rendering of how the artist plans to lay out the piece is available on the City of St. Catharines’ YouTube channel. According to the render, the memorial will stretch alongside the Neil Peart pavilion overlooking the water in Lakeside Park.
Both the city council and DeRocco’s Task Force endlessly emphasize the importance of properly honouring St. Catharines’ rock legend. The effort they are putting into this project is to show RUSH fans the influence Peart continues to have on the community.
“Neil Peart’s music touched millions, and his roots in St. Catharines were always an essential part of his story” says DeRocco.