- A healing garden was created to comfort seriously ill patients and their families. Photo: Gina Yarbrough/San Diego County News
By Gina Yarbrough
OCEANSIDE–A ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of a healing garden was held Saturday morning at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside.
Staffers from Tri-City Hospital Foundation and Tri-City Medical Center, North Coast Church members, dignitaries and community members gathered in a courtyard north side of the hospital for the unveiling of three healing gardens.
Staffers from Tri-City Hospital Foundation, Tri-City Medical Center and North Coast Church participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony of the healing garden. Photo: Gina Yarbrough/San Diego County News
The healing garden was created to give patients, their families and hospital employees a place to sit and relax.
Planted trees, roses, tuscan and California native plants surround the quiet area, which is adjacent to the patient discharge entrance.
The six-week project was a collaborative effort by donors to the Tri-City Hospital Foundation, Tri-City Medical Center employees, and North Coast Church.
During the weekends, more than 170 volunteers from North Coast Church spent 1,104 hours designing the landscape, planting trees, flowers, adding cement to walkways, lighting and a water system.
“We have a beautiful landscape to admire,” said Tobi Ferguson, president and CEO, Tri-City Hospital Foundation. “The spirit comes in many ways through volunteering.”
The healing garden was a project selected by North Coast Church members in observance of Weekend of Service, a program which church members donate their time to several projects in the community.
Dave Enns, one of the pastors of North Coast Church, said that all church services were cancelled on May 14 and 15, so that church members could go out into the community and serve.
“We continue to come here and minister to you,” Pastor Enns told guests at the ceremony. “We are the hands and feet of Jesus in the community.”
- Several species of flowers are planted in the healing garden. Photo: Gina Yarbrough/San Diego County News
Companies such as Lowes, Home Depot, North County Tree Service, Land Graphics, Kichler Lighting, North County Mission Tree Service, RCP Block and Brick, Westbrook Landscape, ABT Wireless, Katz and Associates, Luis Cruz Concrete, Superior Ready Mix Concrete, Southwest Bolder and Stone Rocks, Village Nurseries, Terra Bella Nursery, and North County Supplies either donated or reduced the cost of materials used to build the gardens.
Emerson Grimsby, who served as the project leader of North Coast Church, says a system will control the amount of water used to water the plants. “Water is done on a system,” he said. The hospital will maintain the garden.
About 20,000 people are admitted to Tri-City Medical Center each year, according to Larry Anderson, CEO, Tri-City Medical Center. And more than 80,000 fill the emergency rooms each year. “This is the second busiest hospital.”
