Living Memorial Gardens adds personal touch

SIDNEY -- Volunteers with Living Memorial Gardens recently celebrated an addition to the park. 

Living Memorial Gardens, a small area on the south side of Legion Park, is dedicated to the memory of those who have died. A volunteer can take the responsibility of a plot, planting flowers and maintaining the site.

A recent addition makes the site a little more interactive, and for visitors to take a memory home. A new photo board was built and installed in the shade of the garden.

"We invited all the crew that helped us install our new photo board here so that both the newspaper and the radio station could take a look at it and spread the word to our community here in Sidney," said Kahla Mathewson

The Living Memorial Gardens has been at Legion Park where the swimming pool was located for about 40 years. 

"The flower garden is a volunteer-based group that has been involved in planting all these beautiful little gardens for about 40 years. During COVID, 2020 when we couldn't do anything, I got involved and asked the group 'can I have a little garden?'" said Mathewson said.

She said she ended up with a big garden she admitted as "a little weedy." She said she saw a way to encourage children to be involved in the gardens.

"One idea I had because I've seen a lot of little kids walking through and they look through the flowers, sometimes they step on a few flowers, but they're learning to respect the areas like this. But I thought we needed something more for little kids. And I'm a sucker for photo boards. I saw the one I think at breakfast in Potter one day and I, it just hit me that we needed one of these picture boards here at the Living Memorial Gardens," she 

said.