Visitors to the East Lyme Community Center are enjoying a much more scenic and inviting entrance to their facility, thanks to the efforts and sweat equity of volunteers, most of them kids who participate in the East Lyme Youth Services Association (ELYSA) programs.
On May 2, about 50 youth and several adult volunteers, including town staff, picked up shovels and rakes to install the Children’s Cancer Memorial Garden around the entrance to the East Lyme Library, Senior Center, and Youth Services building.
The gardens have a direct significance for many of the volunteers, young and old. Taylor Emery, a popular basketball player at East Lyme High School , died of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma about a year ago at age 16. The only child of Phil and Ellen Emery, Taylor would have graduated from East Lyme High School this year.
“There was such an outcry after Taylor passed away, the kids really needed to talk about him,” said Sarah Butterfield, ELYSA program director. “So we brought them together with Taylor ’s parents and family last June.”
Butterfield, who joined ELYSA in January, suggested to the Student Planning Association (SPA), East Lyme kids who meet at the center each week after school, that they do a community service project to honor Taylor and other youth touched by cancer. They could turn the eyesore entrance into a garden.
They also could raise awareness for childhood cancers and do something for the families of children with cancer. They decided to put in a wishing well or small pond, something to catch coins that could be donated to Kids Cancer-Vive, a local organization working through the Tommy Fund for Childhood Cancer at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital.
“We have nine children in East Lyme with cancer,” said Carol Geluso of East Lyme . “Some kids are doing fine and being cured, others are not. We have had two deaths from childhood cancers in two years.”
Geluso lost her 2-year-old grandson to cancer in 2000. A member of the Tommy Fund’s board, she helped start Kids Cancer-Vive.
“These kids can’t be forgotten,” Butterfield said. “Their memories should live on. These families should have a place to go to celebrate their children.”
The garden isn’t designed to be a place for grieving, as much as it is for celebrating young lives, she said. There are also environmental benefits of replacing many square feet of impervious blacktop with plants and mulch. It reduces summer air conditioning needs, as well as provides a more pleasant entrance for everyone using the community center to enjoy.
Butterfield found support from multiple town departments that wanted to see more beautification and plantings, but didn’t have public funds to do the work. Dave Putnam, director of parks and recreation, provided advice, top soil, and grass seed for a planned grassy area around a garden plaque that will be installed later this summer.
She sought donations from area nurseries and businesses. They came up with drought-tolerant, hardy varieties that are well-suited to the urban gardens, which often have hot spots created by surrounding buildings and pavement, deep shade areas, and soggy sections caused by rainwater runoff from buildings.
Some rain gutters were installed on part of the roof to catch water runoff. The Public Works Department provided rainwater barrels to hold the water. Youth volunteers will be responsible for maintaining the gardens and watering plants through the growing season.
All of the plants, the topsoil, mulch, a wooden wishing well, and small water garden were donated by area merchants and individuals, Butterfield said.
Sizeable donations of plants and materials came from Judges Farm in Old Lyme, Smith’s Acres in Niantic, Green Survival Gardens and Perennial Harmony in Waterford, Salem Country Gardens in Salem, Clauson’s in East Lyme, as well as Pride’s Corner, a large plant nursery and wholesaler in Lebanon. Home Depot, Holdridge’s, and Baltic Greenhouses also contributed. Lombardi’s donated 24 tons of much-needed top soil.
The gardens contain a mixture of native plants, grasses, and ornamental perennials. Shade plants include hostas, huchera, and bleeding hearts. Russian sage, Echinacea, and Rudbeckia round out the wild flowers. Several hydrangea bushes, well-suited to wet and dry soil conditions, were planted. Taller shrubs and trees include a Japanese maple, lilac, fragrant viburnum, sand cherry, a peach tree, and a Japanese wisteria. There is one peony; Butterfield would love to add more of those.
At the Saturday planting spree, Phil and Ellen Emery and extended family helped to plant a butterfly bush in memory of Taylor .
The gardens are still a work in progress, Butterfield said. Sandy Sandberg is donating funds to complete a wooden wishing well and small pond beside it. A commemorative sign will explain that the wishing well is dedicated in the memory of Taylor Emery and the inspiration he gave to others.
A memorial plaque is being developed for the garden, thanks to Stop & Shop of East Lyme , which also provided hotdogs, hamburgers, and drinks to volunteers. Quiznos and Flanders Fish Market helped to feed the gardeners, too.
Several town employees helped at the planting, including Renee Fecteau, East Lyme HR director, Keith Hayden, a town engineer, and First Selectman Paul Formica, who was taking in the community document shredding day organized by the Police Benevolent Association. Butterworth also thanked Patrick Polland, custodian, for good insights on project design.
The beds will be maintained by organic methods, Butterfield said. The youth will be working with compost and natural pest controls, instead of synthetic chemicals.
Taxpayer dollars spent on the project were minimal, she said, involving two days of highway department staff sawing through and removing the asphalt surface. The garden design created curved walkways through the beds, leaving the asphalt as a less expensive option than pavers and easier for snow removal.
Gardening may not be cool with teens, Butterfield said, but once they get outside and working, they really like it.
“Knowing that we were helping people made it worthwhile,” said Shannon Higgins, an eighth-grader and one of the SPA members and volunteers.
“The garden is an absolutely amazing project,” said Melissa O’Brien, ELYSA executive director, who credits Butterfield with taking the initiative and bringing the idea to fruition. “The outcome was way more than we ever expected in terms of volunteers, donations, and town support.”
Butterfield welcomes future donations of plants. She has ideas for adding a small wall in one area and some benches for seating. For more information, contact ELYSA at 860-739-6788, visit www.elysa.org, or stop by and see the garden as it evolves at 45 Society Road in Niantic.