FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Two of the city’s most famous and popular residents — at least to Fairhope K-1 Center students and other children as well — have returned to their home at Fairhopers Community Park.

“Well, we’ve got them all back,” said Mayor Tim Kant Thursday, at a ceremony to recognize the return of mother and baby dinosaur statues installed in 1997 but missing from the park the past couple of years.

“You’d be surprised how many kids come up and ask me where the dinosaurs are,” Kant said, adding that a little girl approached him recently in a restaurant, very happy that the dinosaurs had returned to the park across from the school.

“The kids noticed it the day they were back,” said Kathy Hudson, a physical education teacher at the school, who brought several classes to attend the Thursday ceremony. “It is fabulous.”

The copper statues were made by Jake Williamson of Flutter-By Fountains & Sculptures for an estate in North Carolina but eventually found their way to Fairhopers Community Park through a fundraising effort led by Norm Wachtl.

“We had them build a fountain for us,” Wachtl said Friday of Williamson and his wife, Day’s, business. “A friend from Sarasota wanted one. When we went out there and saw the dinosaurs in the yard of his studio. It just seemed like it would be a nice addition to the K-1 Center across the street. We knocked on a lot of doors to raise the money.”

Wachtl said Williamson valued the mother dinosaur at $12,000 but agreed to donate $5,000 to the park if supporters would raise the remaining $7,000, which was later reduced to $6,000. Wachtl said fundraising proved a challenge but eventually then-Fairhope resident B.J. Blanchard stepped forward to make up the difference.

Recently, other local residents have also jumped in to help out the dinosaurs.

“It’s been about two years since they’ve been here,” said Public Works Director Jennifer Fidler, noting that two local artisans put in a lot of hours to repair the damage to both sculptures. “The city just appreciates their stepping up and helping out. It’s definitely not a budgeted item.”

Although both David Barnhill of Barnhill Metals, who repaired the mother, and Joe Strange of The Drapery Makery & Canvas Workshop, who repaired the baby, said they would be sending bills to the city, they also said they would be contributing a lot of their labor as donations.

“We gave a large amount of hours,” Strange said, explaining the baby had gone missing and been returned to the city anonymously, but required extensive repairs.

Barnhill said he worked on the mother over the course of a year.

“The neck was bent and the legs badly damaged and crushed,” he said. “She couldn’t even stand up.”

Now that the dinosaurs have returned, Wachtl thinks this would be a good time for students to suggest some permanent names for the popular park residents.

“We had hoped the original names of Daffy (the mother) and Dino (the baby) would be changed and new names given when they were first put there,” Wachtl said. “We were hoping the students could work with the teachers and suggest some names. I went out to the school several times, but it never seemed to happen. If the students gave them names now, they could be put on a sign in front of the dinosaurs.”

Fidler would like something else put on those signs: a warning not to climb on them, which resulted in some of the damage.

“Can I get your help not to hang or climb on her?” Fidler asked the K-1 students. “Her neck is very fragile, and we can’t have people climbing on her because she could break. Doing that will help us keep them in the park.”

The children seemed happy to admire the dinosaurs from the ground, at least for now, and that the dinosaurs were back in the park. One student said he liked them but wished they were pterodactyls, his favorite dinosaur.

But another student said, “I prefer them being long-necked, because they’re (my) favorites.”

Sherry Sullivan, city spokeswoman, explained why she thought the dinosaurs caught the imagination and interest of so many people, and why they had been missed by so many.

“It’s kind of magical,” she said. “You read about them in fairy tales, but we have them in our park.”