By Abby Zieverink

Childrens Memorial Garden

Children’s Memorial Garden in Maskwôtêh Park set to break ground in Spring 2022

Feb 24, 2022 | 5:00 AM

Organizers are gearing up to break ground this spring on a long-awaited Children’s Memorial Garden in Maskwôtêh Park.

Co-founder and past president of Tiny Hands of Hope Karen Gilkyson says the garden will act as a place for families to visit, honour, and mourn children who have passed away.

She explains the garden was first approved by the City of Grande Prairie back in September 2017 and fundraising efforts began in 2018.

“Tiny Hands of Hope has hosted a couple of galas, but because of the pandemic, two of them did not go through, so we paused fundraising. But we are back to focusing on fundraising and wrapping up the efforts for breaking ground this spring on the garden,” she stated.

The garden is being created in partnership with the organization Compassionate Friends of Grande Prairie.

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Tiny Hands of Hope supports families who have lost a baby at any gestation up until the age of two and Compassionate Friends supports families who are suffering the loss of a child at any age.

With that, Gilkyson believes it will be the perfect place for families who have suffered the loss of a child.

“When a child dies a ripple effect spills out throughout our entire community, and it’s not just the families who suffer. It’s the friends, it’s the extended family, it’s the teachers, the classmates the first responders,” said Gilkyson.

Recently, Tiny Hands of Hope put a survey out to local families which saw 69.4 per cent of the 95 respondents feel there is not a positive place for loved ones to go and grieve the loss of their child.

Gilkyson says this memorial garden will fill that void in the community.

“The garden will be a place where they can go and be able to heal and reflect and remember the child that has passed away.”

She tells EverythingGP it will be a blooming garden with trees, shrubs perennials, and a gazebo.

“It will give somewhere where the families and anyone impacted by the loss of a child can honour the child on maybe their anniversary or birthday.”

She says two sculptures have been commissioned from an artist out of Cochrane.

“One is a family of geese, they are pretty big so an adult can sit on the mama and the gooselings are so cute, they’re playing dress-up, so it’s very childlike, whimsical and it’s very inviting,” added Gilkyson.

As of February 23, over $150,000 has been raised to put towards creating the garden, which includes a $10,000 grant from the County of Grande Prairie.

“The county money certainly helps, it will be put towards our perennials and shrubs, that alone will be about $40,000.”

One of the goals for this year is to complete the earthworks and landscaping for the garden, explains Gilkyson.

“So that money will certainly go into that so we can have that portion done and then if we need to take an extra year to finish the fundraising so we can add the sculptures, add the gazebo next year.”

Tiny Hands of Hope is also hosting an Illuminate the Night Gala which will see the funds raised go towards the Children’s Memorial Garden.

The event is taking place on March 19, at the Holiday Inn in Grande Prairie.

Tickets for the event can be found here.