Our 2015 Welcome Home project is well underway! Last month, we introduced the Cornells, our Welcome Home family that will be receiving a landscape design makeover after losing their backyard during Hurricane Sandy. We hope to have the project completed just in time for the three-year anniversary of the hurricane later this month…and the Cornell kids already have plans to roast marshmallows in their new fire pit to mark the occasion!
The Cornell family voted, and elected to focus all of our efforts on the backyard alone, so they can have an outdoor space to create new memories together. In addition to the fire pit, we’ll be installing a walkway, a paver patio, and a seating wall.
We’re most excited, though, about building a very special memorial area in the backyard. A retired NYPD officer, Rich Cornell was present at the Twin Towers during the 1993 bombings, and now works at the 9/11 memorial. A pear tree will be planted in the Cornells’ own “survival area” in the yard, inspired by the pear tree near Ground Zero that survived the 9/11 attacks and now functions as a symbol of hope at the memorial.
As we prepare to install the Cornells’ new backyard in the coming days, we’re so grateful to our generous partners in the Long Island landscape design community for their support: Unilock of Brewster, NY, Astro Masonry & Supply of Deer Park, NY, and MGO Stone of Islandia, NY for donating masonry materials, as well as Patricia Hopkins for donating her time and landscape design services.
