Civilian Conservation Corps veterans and their families are sought for a dedication at 2 p.m. Friday of a statue at the Capitol honoring the popular New Deal program.

The 6-foot-tall bronze statue of a "CCC boy" — shirtless with khaki pants and holding an ax — was sculpted by Sergey Kazaryan and cast at the Elliot Gantz and Co. foundry in Long Island, N.Y.

More than 50 of the statues already have been installed around the country, including one this summer at Elephant Butte Dam near Truth or Consequences.

The dam was completed in 1916 — 17 years before the CCC began — but many of the picnic grounds, cabins and trails around the Rio Grande reservoir were built by the CCC.

The CCC was one of the more fondly remembered New Deal programs. Millions of 18- to 24-year-old men — unmarried and unemployed — worked outdoors on CCC projects between 1933 an 1942.

New Mexico had 32 camps, including two in Santa Fe that housed workers building the Santa Fe River Park and Hyde Memorial State Park.

Kathy Flynn, executive director of the National New Deal Preservation Association, said state Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, sponsored the appropriation of $25,000 for the purchase and installation of the statue. Additional money was raised privately, she said.

Flynn said Friday's dedication will begin inside the Capitol Rotunda, then move outside. The statue will be atop a base of river rock near the sidewalk of Don Gaspar Avenue on the west side of the Capitol.

One of the Santa Fe CCC veterans, 95-year-old Carl Walker, said he plans to attend the dedication. "It's going to be a great honor to the CCC and us CCC boys," he said.

Flynn said she is looking for other CCC veterans and their families to participate in Friday's ceremony.

"These men are all in their late 80s or 90s — the ones that are left," she said. "So when we had the option of waiting until spring, I said, 'No way. These guys have been waiting so long for this recognition.' "

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.