Healing Garden back in top form for summer

SANDPOINT — You’ll find them wandering quietly around just after sunrise, when the sun pours over the Cabinet Mountains and begins to bathe the pathways in light.

Their minds are elsewhere, but their hearts are as surely rooted in this place as the flowers and trees that thrive here.

They come because of the beauty and the sweet memories it evokes. Mostly, though, they come for the healing.

“That’s why we built the garden, to give people a place to walk around or just sit and reflect,” said Linda Plaster, one of the volunteer committee members who care for the Healing Garden at Bonner General Health. “It’s such a peaceful place. So many people tell us that they feel the spirit here.”

Now 12 years old, the gardens have matured to the point where trees have to be relocated and, in the case of the centerpiece waterfall, major repairs have had to be made. The water feature, which dominates the top of the gardens and spills into a stream that meanders downhill toward Sand Creek, was riddled with problems last fall when Dave and Tom Bangle of Sandpoint Power & Pump came to the rescue.

“Dave was really grateful for the Healing Garden,” said Plaster, adding that Bonner Community Hospice had cared for his wife. “He looked at the waterfall and said, ‘We can fix that.’ And they took care of it all winter.”

Supported by a $7,500 grant from TransCanada Corp., the Bangles volunteered their time this spring to do major renovations to the water feature.

“Now, they’ve added a big, 5-foot well at the bottom to hold enough water to pump all the way back to the top,” said Plaster.

The volunteer effort also included the help of Chris Scarlett of Aspen Ridge Landscaping in Clark Fork, who jumped in to get the stream running again. The Home Depot joined in the cause when it called out of the blue to donate almost three tons of pebbles for the streambed.

Such donations have kept the Healing Garden alive from the beginning, according to Plaster. When the gardens were still in the planning stages, Bonner General Health CEO Sheryl Rickard pledged a loan for the initial construction costs, which was paid back through community donations within two years.

TransCanada was a major donor in those early stages, providing $25,000 to get the gardens up and running. Coldwater Creek, too, weighed in heavily for the project’s success, donating $10,000 to help cover construction and landscaping costs.

“We haven’t forgotten Coldwater Creek,” said Plaster. “We're so grateful to them and we're going to miss them in every way you can think of.”

The loss of Coldwater Creek as a large employer and a generous donor to local organizations leaves a gap in the funding network, but with smaller companies like Sandpoint Power & Pump and Aspen Ridge Landscaping stepping up, the Healing Garden has managed to keep growing. Add to that the support from larger firms such as TransCanada and the future still has a rosy glow for the project.

“It’s the community that has supported us and given us the money that allowed us to carry on,” the committee member said.

It would be easy to point out that Linda's son, John Plaster, is the Northern Area Manager for TransCanada and come to the conclusion that the Healing Garden benefits from that familial connection. The truth, however, is that TransCanada has been spreading its largesse far and wide in the community for years now, including buying library books for Northside and Southside elementary schools, purchasing emergency equipment for first responder departments in North Idaho, donating to the construction fund for the Hall Mountain Fire Department, funding Bull Trout restoration through Idaho Fish & Game, sending checks to the Bonner Community Food Bank and providing financial support for events such as the Long Bridge Swim and the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club Fishing Derby.

“Our organization and our employees feel very strongly about being active, positive members of the communities we live and work within,” John Plaster said. “There is nothing better than being in a position to give back to the people and communities that partner in helping you be successful — this is our opportunity to make a difference.”

Recognition of the garden's importance doesn't stop with grant monies and local support. In a Northwest regional competition for the Sonoma Award, the Healing Garden at Bonner General Health became the only entry ever to receive a unanimous vote for approval when that committee gave it the award a couple of years ago.

“We were in the running with some amazing projects, including Philipsburg, Mont., where they completely redid their whole town,” Linda Plaster said.

Along with the rose gardens, flowerbeds and trees that line the walkways of the Healing Garden, the space is dotted with whimsical sculptures by area artists. The most recent, unveiled last Saturday, is called Marsha the Magnificent Monarch - a 5-foot, painted wood Monarch butterfly sculpture in the Children’s Garden, placed there in the memory of Marsha Ogilvie, former Sandpoint mayor and founder of community mainstays such as Kinderhaven and the Women of Wisdom group.

“Our garden art is just a delight to people,” Plaster said. “That’s what we wanted to create — all of this beauty that smells good and then, you turn a corner and find something that puts a smile on your face.”

Keeping the gardens in good shape — never mind the unexpected costs of major repairs — runs about $20,000 a year. Committee members remain confident that community support will keep the money flowing in to cover that amount. A bigger concern, they say, is attracting new blood to join them in their all-volunteer mission to keep up a space that now touches the hearts of so many.

“We’re planning for the future and looking for volunteers who are going to keep it going when us old gals are gone,” joked Plaster, who pointed out that the current committee members were in their 50s and 60s when the gardens got their start 12 years ago.

“We’re always looking for young people who have a passion for gardens and for making life better for other people.”

To learn more about the Healing Garden at Bonner General Health or to volunteer in the gardens, contact Linda Plaster at (208) 290-6929

For those who haven’t yet visited the space, a video tour by master landscaper, musician and videographer Dan Eskelson can be viewed online at: http://youtu.be/hlVn_JeMvSQ