The date is picked, the granite is ordered and the event program is shaping up, but the fundraising to pay for the tribute to Bernard Lown still has a way to go.

On Oct. 17, Lewiston-Auburn will officially rename the South Bridge the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge in his honor. Lown immigrated to the United States as a teenager and graduated from Lewiston High School in 1938. The cardiologist went on to invent the defibrillator and win a Nobel Peace Prize for his work against nuclear war.

The dedication is set to start at 9:30 a.m. at the Franco-American Heritage Center, then go outdoors for a monument unveiling and ribbon-cutting.

A committee formed for the event has ordered and made preliminary designs for a pair of 5-foot-tall granite monuments, one for each side of the bridge. The monuments would feature Lown’s picture, a pair of city seals and text. The pair cost $15,000. So far, $800 has been raised.

“We’ve talked to a lot of people. We have some definite commitments; we just don’t know what the amounts are,” Mayor Larry Gilbert said.

“The mayor and I have been going door to door,” said Al Harvie. He got news of a coming donation that he couldn’t yet discuss, he said Friday, but “after today, I’m more optimistic. … I’m going to start blitzing next week. I think we’re going to get there.”

Gilbert set Oct. 1 as the date he’d like to complete fundraising. He said the question of what would happen if the money wasn’t raised by then had not been discussed.

In addition to the monuments, the Maine Department of Transportation will erect a new road sign on the Lewiston side, also to be unveiled on Oct. 17. Plans call for both cities’ high school marching bands to lead a procession across the bridge and for a chorus to sing. Lown will speak for about 20 minutes, indoors.

“We want this to be a community recognition of the accomplishments of this great man,” Gilbert said.

Donations to the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge Monument Fund can be made to City Hall, in care of the Mayor’s Office, Lewiston City Hall, 27 Pine St., Lewiston, ME, 04240-7242.