Pathways Breaks Ground on Children’s Healing Garden

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (April 6, 2018) – Pathways, a northern Colorado nonprofit that provides expert hospice care, palliative care and grief and loss support, is excited to announce that it has officially broken ground on its Children’s Healing Garden project after successfully completing the project’s $500,000 capital campaign. The Garden will offer many interactive healing opportunities for children who are grieving the loss of a loved one or are facing a life-limiting illness.

Plans for the Children’s Healing Garden were first announced at the end of 2016 with the launch of the capital campaign in May of 2017. Although the capital campaign has been completed, fundraising for the Garden will continue to address construction and labor overages as well as future maintenance.

“Children are often affected the most by grief, but this can be overlooked,” said Tammy-Brannen-Smith, Director of Grief and Loss. “It’s important to provide children with opportunities for them to navigate this grief in a healthy way. We are immensely grateful for the philanthropic support we have received from our community so that hundreds of children can experience the Garden.”

The Garden will be constructed on the east side of the Pathways Counseling Center at 305 Carpenter Road in Fort Collins and is expected to be completed in fall 2018. It is designed to engage grieving children in therapeutic activities to help them better cope with grief and serious illness.

The FronTerra Group is spearheading the architectural design of the Garden, which will include many unique features designed to engage grieving and ill children in therapeutic activities, including an oversized “bird’s nest” with an “eggs” seating area for one-on-one counseling, a memory garden, sand play area, steps for moving between tiers, a mandala area for art therapy and many more. WaterWise Land & Waterscapes is leading the landscaping of the project, and Gulley Greenhouse donated the specialized plants and flowers for the project.

As the Children’s Healing Garden is coming into fruition, Pathways is also excited to announce the organization’s 40 year anniversary. This milestone celebrates four decades of serving northern Colorado with compassionate care during life’s most difficult moments. Pathways was founded in 1978 by a team of volunteer nurses and has since grown to be the state’s sixth largest hospice provider. In addition, Pathways for Grief and Loss is northern Colorado’s only grief counseling center and is among the leading grief-support programs nationwide.