Growing the walkways
Building a destination
By Kris Leonhardt
As the Cultural Commons Committee continues to work toward a garden which emphasizes the community’s history and heritage as well as its long-term international relationships, work is progressing on the three walkways branching out from the heart of the grounds.
Each walkway was designed to reflect the cultural bonds of the space, located in Pfiffner Park, and contains paver stones which may be used to recognize your family name, honor your heritage, honor a loved one, or in remembrance of military service.
“I’ve gotten contact from a lot of family members who were not able to do memorials in honor of their loved one passing,” said Trish Mrozek, who assists with the walk she refers to as the “River Walk.”
“We work with the families, when they want their engravers to be in a particular spot.
The River Walk is located in the section that features elements of Polish and Native American heritage. Two other walkways are situated in the Russian and Nicaraguan areas.
On Sept. 17, the next faction of pavers was completed, as Mike Secord of UP Engraving, Bessemer, MI, worked to engrave 40 stones on site, with assistance from friend, John Klesmith.
“We’ll probably do this project twice a year. We will probably do it in spring and fall,” Secord explained.
“The first batch we did right up at my shop, up by me, and then I shipped them down here and they put them in. Now that they are in place, it’s just easier to do them in place, rather than pull them out.
“It’s a pretty cool project. It is great to be involved in it.
To date, Mrozek said that 115 stones have been engraved, with many still available to the public.
Mrozek said that a special ceremony to bless the walkway in the Polish – Native American section of the garden will be held yet in the upcoming month.
“What we intend to do in fall, since they have completed this part is with (Polish Heritage Awareness Society), we are going to have this walk, as far as it is, blessed and dedicated; so, we are going to be doing a ceremony here in fall,” she said.
For more information about the garden, visit www.spculturalcommons.com. For more information on the pavers, visit http://www.spculturalcommons.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Cultural-Commons-Paver-Blank-form.pdf.