Brushton-Moira Central School Memorial Garden provides support
BRUSHTON — A local garden in Brushton is helping the community with healing and remembrance. The Brushton-Moira Central School Memorial Garden is a garden that is maintained with the help of just volunteers.
“The mission of the memorial garden is, to have a plan for appropriate tributes for our school community members, to provide support for our families who are struck by tragedy, to develop a garden that can be expanded overtime, and to develop guidelines for tributes,” the Memorial Garden pamphlet reads.
The planning started in 2005 when the Brushton-Moira Board of Education wanted a garden to remember past students, teachers, and their families. The school then started a committee to plan what the garden looks like and how to remember the past.
Construction of the garden didn’t get going until 2015 with volunteers digging dirt and putting bricks on the garden, which also received help from Alcoa in the form of a grant they provided as well as providing 12 of its employees to help with the development.
The garden also received support from businesses such as Harris Oil in Brushton, which provided an excavator free of charge to help with the digging of the garden.
Garden committee member Martha Martin says the community enjoys remembering the past.
“It gives a place of healing” she said, “There’s a lot of students who were looking for a memorial garden, a place that kids could actually go and sit and have it quiet and peaceful and feel like they were close to (and lost).”
People in the community also enjoy having the garden. Committee member Joel Avery said that every town should have a memorial garden.
“Every community should have one” he said, “I’m proud that our community has such a nice garden”.
The committee also wants younger people to help with the garden.
“I was kind of hoping that (the committee) would see some younger people start to get involved with it” he said, “We’ve had a couple of students that were interested for a while, but it’s hard, they go off the college or work or start a family or whatever.”
Committee members are also glad that the community is giving it exposure over the years.
“The awareness of the garden happens during Heritage day” said Donna Andre, committee member, “The Heritage Day often occurs concurrently with various class reunions. There’s two or three class reunions this year so we should get a bit of exposure from them.”
One of the things that the committee has done to help spread awareness about the garden is hosting an ice cream social for the younger kids and their families as well as music for the occasion.
The committee doesn’t plan to get bigger but is planning to have new but small additions added. The additions include new mulch, lights, and a new swing for people to sit in. Volunteers are always welcome to help with the garden over the spring and the summer.
The planting date will be from 4 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10 at the memorial garden.
To donate a plant or purchase an item for the garden, contact Joel Avery at 518-529-6556, and 4×8 bricks with 1 to 3 lines of text cost $50 and 8×8 bricks with 1 to 5 lines of text cost $100, and orders are due by August 1.
To order, send a check to Brushton Moira Central School, 758 County Route 7, Brushton, NY 12916. For more information, contact Christina Dufrane at (518) 529-7432 extension 7001.
“The Brushton Moira Community memorial garden motto is that it is ‘A place for peaceful healing.’” Avery said. “We encourage anyone in the area to come and sit and enjoy the beautiful garden and let it ease your mind.”
Current garden committee members include: Donna Andre, Todd Lapage, Joel and Anna Avery, Robert and Marlene McCarthy, Sylvia Hutchins, Curt Lyons, Mary Bilow, Martha Martin, Dwayne Ghostlaw, Joshua Barney, and Christina Dufrane.