Healing garden in Humboldt earns national recognition

Humboldt Urban Garden Sanctuary (HUGS) took nearly two years to complete. (Submitted)

A landscaping project to help the community of Humboldt heal from the tragic Broncos team bus crash in 2018 has received a national award.

The Humboldt Urban Garden Sanctuary (HUGS) was given the Green for Life Community Award from the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association.

HUGS officially opened in June and had been years in the making.

“Once we selected a winning design, we started to work towards building it,” Joel Beatson said, adding later that day the global COVID-19 pandemic was declared.

“So really, in the summer of 2021, we really started to make it happen and then it's progressed through there. We had an opening ceremony just earlier this summer in June and unveiled the garden to the community,” Beatson said.

Most of the work was done by volunteers, according to Leslie Cornell from Landscape Saskatchewan. She said winning the award felt surreal.

“The honour of being involved in the first place was enough for me and then when we were nominated, and then won the Community Green for Life Award. That's just amazing. That is forever and is something that we will always treasure and it's always going to be something that's close at heart because it is right here in my province,” she said.

Cornell said while the recognition of an award is good to have, the garden itself was the most rewarding experience.

“It's something that I was able to give back to the community and really an opportunity to make a place for people to come together and, reflect and collect and the story behind the garden is quite incredible.”

Humboldt city councillor Roger Nordick was also key in helping the project come together and said it was about providing a space for the community.

“The garden needed to provide a place for healing for everyone in Humboldt and region or in some way connected to Humboldt; a place where anyone can go for serenity and tranquillity. We all agreed a healing garden that must delicately signify the loss of the Humboldt Bronco hockey team but not overshadow the objective of a place of healing for everyone, regardless of their reason for generations in the future.”

Most of the financing for HUGS was from Scott’s Canada and director of regulatory affairs and stakeholder relations, Karen Stephenson, was present for the award presentation. She said the intention was to give a healing space for the community but that it was so much more than that.

“We built a community. We built a collaboration of partners from all across our industry from multiple stakeholders and I am truly inspired by what we created and how hard everybody worked to make this garden come to fruition,” Stephenson said during the presentation.

Cornell said the garden was currently open to the public, but there are also additional elements she is anticipating.

“I'm really anxious to see the story and writing in the garden for everybody to see because I can tell you the story, but I think people will enjoy really seeing it.”

She encouraged visitors to look closely when they visit HUGS so they don’t miss a thing.

“When you walk through the gardens, you don't always notice right away that the sunrise sunset garden is angel wings, in memory of the children and people that passed,” she said.