Oakland park to get temporary 'Children's FairyLiu' rebrand to honor gold-medal Olympian
A mockup 'Children's FairyLiu' sign at Oakland's Children's Fairyland park.
OAKLAND, Calif. - You can watch full streaming coverage of the homecoming celebration for Oakland homegrown Olympic champion Alysa Liu on KTVU on Thursday, but another way the Town is celebrating the gold-medalist figure skater, is by temporarily renaming Children's Fairyland as 'Children's FairyLiu'.
Yep, the iconic sign in Lake Merritt's park that once influenced Walt Disney's vision for Disneyland will be getting a makeover.
What we know:
With all 7,000 free RSVP tickets for the town rally celebrating Liu spoken for, Oakland is finding additional ways to honor the 20-year-old Olympian who brought home two gold medals at this year's winter Olympic Games.
The sign will be on display at Fairy Hill, located on the shores of Lake Merritt at Children's Fairyland located at 699 Bellevue Avenue, from March 12 through March 30.
"Fairyland's sign has always been a way for us to reflect what Oakland is celebrating," said Children's Fairyland CEO Kymberly Miller. "Alysa Liu's achievements have filled this city with pride, and we want to honor her joyful spirit and incredible accomplishments in a way the whole community can see. The Town is proud to celebrate her!"
‘Worldwide icon’
A full-on display of that town pride will be apparent at the limited-capacity rally at Frank Ogawa Plaza. It's no surprise that Oakland is celebrating this positive news, Olympic-champ fever and is latching on to Liu, who has experienced "an astronomical rise to global fame" according to the Children's Fairyland press release. It's especially poignant after what they called her "perfectly executed performance that turned her into a worldwide icon."
We've already reported on how the Temescal District got in on the action with a "super dope" mural on the corner of Telegraph Avenue and 43rd Street, where Liu is baring her teeth and aggressively brandishing her freshly-won gold medal.
Liu was born in Richmond and raised in Oakland.
Last month, when she took home the gold for Team USA, it marked the first individual gold medal for the team in 24 years. We reported from the Oakland Ice Center, where she has often trained and has remained an inspiration to the community.
Oakland and Alysa, you deserve this!
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