Community Partnership Brings New Life to the Memorial Garden
Nestled to the left of Sherbourne Health’s front sliding glass doors is the Memorial Garden, a quiet space to honour and remember the people in our community who have passed. This month, volunteers from Friends of Allan Gardens came together with Sherbourne staff to help clean up the space and give it new life.
The Memorial Garden has a history of its own. Two years ago, the garden was replanted with native perennials in shades of purple, representative of Overdose Awareness Day. Over time, the garden has settled into its own rhythm, with perennials returning each season and the larger grasses and shrubs settling in and staking their place.
But gardens, like communities, need steady care. The space hasn’t always had the ongoing attention required to keep it curated and thriving. The cleanup was meant to change that—making room for growth by spacing out crowded plants and planting bulbs that will emerge in the spring.
The day also marked the beginning of a new partnership with Friends of Allan Gardens. Our connection began at the World Hep C Day barbecue, an event we’ve held at Allan Gardens for the past two years, where we saw how naturally our communities came together. That sense of harmony led to conversations about collaborating on future programming and what we might build together.
As the teams dug into the soil, cleared debris and replanted fresh plants, the partnership took shape on the ground. Chris Geoghegan, Hep C Coordinator and cleanup organizer, noted just how “seamlessly communities can come together to strengthen each other’s work.”
Volunteers from friends of Allan Gardens came with extra bulbs and a dogwood shrub for the Memorial Garden. In turn, Sherbourne shared surplus gardening materials to support an Indigenous gardening project—a small exchange that felt like its own form of reciprocity.
Throughout the day, the teams imagined what could come next: a spring cleanup and planting event, new opportunities to connect community members with gardening and seasonal plantings that could bring colour and care to our centre.
“Sometimes, the greatest meetings take place far from meeting rooms,” Chris reflected.
We hope this partnership can help the Memorial Garden continue to be a space for connection, grief, grounding and healing.