WICOMICO COUNTY, MD – Students, staff and loved ones gathered at James M. Bennett High School on Wednesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Memorial Garden.
The James M. Bennett graduating class of 2000 lost three of its own in their senior year.
Lori Sterling and Jessica Smith died in car accidents, and their classmate, Adam Travatello, lost his battle with T-cell leukemia.
Bobbie Aaron said she feels her late daughter Lori’s presence in the Memorial Garden before the rededication ceremony.
“It still seems like yesterday,” Aaron said. “She’s still 17, even though she’d be 43.”
Students from the class of 2000, assisted by a faculty advisor, devised plans for a memorial. Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day was a James M. Bennett student interested in architecture at the time and helped design the original garden.
“It’s just a lot to process at any age,” Day said. “What we were asked to process was a lot and what you see is the simple act of deciding we’re going to do something.”
Volunteers planted three trees marked with a plaque for each Lori, Jessica and Adam.
Secretary Day told the crowd at Wednesday’s ceremony that preserving the Memorial Garden was a deciding factor in the school’s 2010 rebuilding.
“James Bennett stands where it stands because Lori, Jessie and Adam and their memories stand right here,” Day said.
Cassidy Feeney is the current memorial garden advisor at James M. Bennett.
“We did expand a little bit,” Feeney said, explaining how the garden has changed over the years. “It’s a little bit nicer, a little bit bigger, but the original trees are in their same exact spot.”
While the garden stayed in the same spot during the 2010 rebuild, the three original plaques were not replaced. After 15 years, Bobbie Aaron said she is happy to see Lori’s name on a brand new plaque back in front of the tree dedicated to her more than two decades ago.
“I’m here today to celebrate all the new bricks, but I’m also here to celebrate, you know, Adam, Lori and Jessie being back,” Aaron said. This is their time to shine back in front of their trees, where they belong.”
Over the last 25 years, engraved bricks have been added to the memorial to honor the memories of others in the James M. Bennett community who have died.
Donations are accepted to cover the $50 cost of a new brick for family members who want to honor a lost loved one.
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