Help Repair the Wilton Woods Memorial Garden

Nearly 20 years ago our community came together just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to honor the victims and families they left behind, as well as to find an outlet for a worthy display of our unity in times of crisis.

Members of the Shadow Walk and Wilton Woods communities, along with generous support from local businesses, volunteered every weekend to ultimately turn a half-acre of land overgrown with weeds into a flowery oasis devoted to peace, reflection and community. That's our Wilton Woods 9/11 Memorial Garden. Although it was a solemn occasion, our community came together in an amazing way.

Now, as we approach the 20-year mark since the tragic events of 2001, the Memorial Garden continues to welcome visitors and serve as a location for our community to come together. The garden has been highlighted in the Washington Post as well as on local television stations. It has been the site of candlelight vigils when members of our community faced personal tragedies and the recipient of several awards including the Kellogg National Gardening Award and the Capital Area Garden Club Award. Wilton Woods earned "first place" in the Keep Virginia Beautiful 2002 Public Property Competition, a recognition from the American Horticultural Society and is documented as a part of the U.S. Forest Service Living Memorials Project National Registry. The Washington Post article about the garden is here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2001/10/18/out-of-tragedy-beauty-grows/8035d842-ea29-4dc4-9e8c-36da53659ea8/

But now the garden needs your help. While many of the garden’s elements have held up, and even flourished over these nearly 20 years, there are some things that desperately need to be repaired/replaced to keep the garden a safe and beautiful place to visit for the next 20 years and beyond.

While the garden’s plants have been taken care of over the years, the walking paths and their metal borders have taken a beating from the elements and are in disrepair.

The garden has a small budget for maintenance, but that budget is too small to cover the cost of replacing the walkways.

The goal of this GoFundMe is to:

1. 1. Raise enough money to replace the stone dust paths with concrete walkways, creating a safer environment for all visitors and requiring less maintenance.

2. 2. Replace the children’s tree (which died) with a children’s garden—planted by children in the community.

3. 3. Give the garden a basic spruce up that will, hopefully, last for another 20 years and beyond.

The cost of the project stands at approximately $9,000, which we hope to raise so restoration can be completed before September 11, 2021.

Should we exceed our fundraising goal, we would also replace the stone path across from the garden with a concrete path and work toward replacing dying plants and shrubs with native plants.

Please help us to keep our community garden safe and beautiful. No donation is too small. Even the smallest amount would help preserve the garden for the next generations of families who visit and help us to continue to honor the victims and families impacted by the 9/11 attacks and the first responders who rushed in that day and continue to serve and protect.

On Sunday, September 12th we will gather in the garden to honor the memory of those impacted by the 9/11 attacks but to also celebrate our community and the garden we built together.