Vet Center Heroes Garden

By Nina Culver Current contributor

The Heroes Garden at the Spokane Vet Center, designed to be a place of respite for veterans and Gold Star families, is getting a new addition in August as several local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution come together to sponsor a Never Forget flower bed.

The large garden sits behind carved metal gates behind the Vet Center on Mirabeau Parkway across from Mirabeau Point Park. More than a dozen raised beds are filled with everything from vegetables to flowers and raspberry bushes line the edges. An Eagle Scout built a fountain that sits on one side. Pear, apple and cherry trees grow next to a gazebo and there are plenty of benches placed throughout the garden to provide a place to sit and chat or be reflective.

“Sometimes people come in and just need a little space,” said Keirsten Lyons of the Washington State Fallen Heroes Project, which maintains the garden.

The new Never Forget flower bed includes an engraved stone, a plaque and Never Forget rose bushes that were created just for the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Spokane Garry,

Jonas Babcock, Esther Reed and May Hutton chapters of the DAR are sponsoring the garden bed along with the Society of the Honor Guard Tome of the Unknown Soldiers and the Washington State Fallen Heroes Project.

The Never Forget flower bed will be unveiled during a public ceremony at 11 a.m. on Aug. 5.

Lyons, in addition to running the garden, is also a Gold Star mother. Her son Jake died in Afghanistan nine years ago while he was serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. She is part of a group of volunteers who come and maintain the garden every Tuesday and finds working in the garden therapeutic. She also finds joy in seeing the peace and comfort it brings others.

“For most of us, Tuesdays are our favorite day of the week,” she said. “Honestly the best part is just watching other people enjoy the space. That’s why we do it. That’s why we come out and pull weeds every week and plant pretty flowers.”

The garden was put in shortly after the Vet Center opened a dozen years ago, but after a few years it fell into disrepair. Lyons said the Washington State Fallen Heroes Project was asked to take over the maintenance of the garden around the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit. At the time, veterans who received counseling at the center were having to meet with their counselors over Zoom.

“We came in and got the garden back under control and gave them a place to meet face to face safely,” she said. “This place has gone through quite the evolution. The weeds were about chest level all the way through.”

While holding counseling sessions outside is no longer a requirement, some veterans still choose to have their sessions in the calmness of the garden, Lyons said. “We encourage people to come out here,” she said. “A lot of people still meet out here.”

Charlene Hawley began attending grief counseling at the Vet Center soon after her son Daniel, a recruiter in the Army National Guard, committed suicide in 2011. Though she doesn’t attend counseling sessions anymore, she still comes to visit the garden. “Anytime you have someplace you can come and relax and just be yourself it’s worth it,” she said. “We get together and sometimes there’s lots of crying, but no one tells us to stop crying.”

Patches Cox, a Department of Defense contractor with Survivor Outreach Services, is one of the volunteers who helps maintain the garden. She said that she likes that it provides a place for veterans that is more calming and welcoming than an office. Sitting down on a bench or at the picnic table while surrounded by a garden is just easier, she said. “It’s just a nice setting where you can just chat,” she said. “It’s therapeutic. No stress.”

The peace and calm offered by the garden isn’t only for those served by the Vet Center, it helps the volunteers as well. “It’s just a wonderful place,” Lyons said. “There’s something very therapeutic about getting your hands in the dirt.”

Having something to do in the garden can also make it easier to have conversations. “There’s a lot of hard stories here,” Lyons said. “It’s hard to sit down and talk about stuff, but when you’re pulling weeds together and planting seeds together it’s easier.”

Veterans and Gold Star family members can adopt one of the raised beds in the garden at the beginning of the year. They can choose to plant whatever they want and are in charge of weeding, watering and harvesting. If a bed isn’t adopted, it’s planted as a community bed, Lyons said. Usually those are planted with tomatoes, zucchini and other vegetables and maintained by the volunteers. After the vegetables are harvested, they’re brought inside for veterans who have appointments at the Vet Center to take home with them.

The Heroes Garden is always looking for volunteers to help maintain the garden, Lyons said. “It really is a community endeavor,” she said. “We will never turn away weed pullers.”

Volunteers work in the garden every Tuesday from 9 to 11 a.m. Anyone interested in becoming involved can email Lyons at honoringheroes@wafhp.org.

Working in the garden is something that Lyons highly recommends. “It just takes you away from real life for a few hours every week,” she said. “It’s just a nice respite.”