CITY NEWS:

How often do we hear the well-worn phrase “once in a lifetime” tossed about without a thought as to whether it truly applies? The phrase rings true when the topic is the McFadden Square Centennial Legacy Project.

MSCLP began last year as a way to preserve the past and create a legacy for future generations living in and visiting Newport Beach.

As the final piece of the city’s centennial celebration, the project is due to be constructed next year at the base of the Newport Beach pier in McFadden Square, where Newport and Balboa boulevards come together at 22nd Street.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the McFadden name: They were the three brothers — James, Robert and John — who bought almost 5,000 acres locally and started a shipping business, complete with a pier and railroad to Santa Ana.

Jumping ahead 100 years from September 1906, when Newport Beach became an incorporated city, to today, covers a lot more history than can be described here.

But many books are available on the details.

The point is this — basically, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have your name, the names of your family members, or your business or organization permanently etched into a public fixture that is sure to remain in the public eye for the next 100 years or more.

Recently the Public Arts Committee, comprised of arts commissioners, arts professors, architects and sculptors, selected Arkansas-based sculptor Hank Kaminsky to create the monument design.

Kaminsky’s design concept consists of a bronze sphere five feet in diameter with favorite city images covering it and surrounded by granite benches and a historical walking path.

To date, more than 400 individuals and organizations have donated for the fund-raising effort, which provides many ways to affix donor names to the project.

If you are interested in placing your name beside others on this historic monument, contact Jana Barbier, the city’s arts coordinator, at (949) 717-3870 or go to www.newportbeach100.com.

There are few opportunities like this, and they come along once in a lifetime.

MARILEE JACKSON is Newport Beach’s public information officer.