By Ann Mraz
Harmony Area Cancer
Support Group Facilitator
Harmony, MN
The Cancer Group was formed some years ago when Marv Wilt was the mayor.
In the agreement at that time and we still follow today, (40 plus years later) the group could do planting and landscaping as they felt necessary and the city would cut the grass and do the trimming. After the bakery was removed from the site, much work needed to be done as numerous rocks and concrete chunks were left behind. Many of the local residents took time and brought equipment in to aid in the renovations and restoration.
Today, it seems the rules have changed even though the group has kept the park looking neat by paying for a person to weed, water and clean it up twice a week. If this didn’t happen it would look like the flower bed and grounds at the visitor center.
Last year, the city decided to cut down two of the trees that the Snyder Nursery gave to the park without any communication to the Cancer Support Group. Now today, I understand that you are going to dig up the two new trees that were put in last fall and move them to the north park. Perhaps with a little communication we could come up with a plan that would leave them in the Cancer Park where the supporters intended them to be.
The monies the group has raised goes to members of our local community that are going through cancer treatments. The “Love Lights a Tree” fundraiser that has been done in December is one of the larger fundraisers.
These upcoming proposals can make it difficult to continue with “Love Lights a Tree.”
The group did not want to use any of those memorial funds for the 2020 landscaping and with no help from the city or the park board, donations were requested and received from local businesses.
Not long ago, in 2016, the Park Board matched the $2,000 given by myself for landscaping at that time to help spruce up the park. Then the Hegg family and Betty Dowe paid for the benches and Kingsley’s paid for and maintain the evergreen tree that has been used every year for the “Love Lights a Tree.”
The group is very disappointed to learn in your current actions to remove the newly planted trees and devastate the landscaping in the current park. They have always tried to make the park a nice place on main street for visitors to see and enjoy while remembering the lives lost to cancer.
I’ve received calls from numerous upset donors about the upcoming plans/changes and I’d like to have further discussions before any other action is taken.
If you or someone you know has supported the Harmony Area Cancer Support Group’s work in the fight against cancer you know how devastating this
disease is. The fact is, in one way or another, cancer affects us all.
Cancer hasn’t stopped, neither have we.
Leave a Reply