The Garden of Hope is located in Concord adjacent to the lower athletic fields at Memorial Field on South Fruit Street. It was designed and built in 2003 by Making Strides Against Breast Cancer volunteers with the support of the Greater Concord community and consists of an approximately 20-by-10-foot granite-edged cancer ribbon-shaped garden and accessory plantings dedicated to all who have been touched by breast cancer. The garden contains granite pavers engraved with the names of corporate sponsors and individual donors and includes a meditation bench. The original donations of materials were made by Swenson Granite Works, Brochu Nursery & Landscaping, Pleasant View Gardens and Outdoor World & Stonescapes.
Each year the Garden of Hope is planted with dozens of pink cascading petunias in June and re-planted in September with pink chrysanthemums, all generously donated by Pleasant View Gardens of Loudon. Members of the Bow Garden Club have been planting the garden in concert with Making Strides volunteers since 2010 and the garden is watered regularly throughout the summer months by Concord city employees. Making Strides Against Breast Cancer volunteers monitor it throughout the growing months, providing gardening maintenance as necessary.
Each October, the Garden of Hope becomes a focal point of the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk when participants and supporters gather at Memorial Field to honor their loved ones affected by breast cancer and to hold their annual fundraising event. Of the 270 American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walks that take place around the country each year, the Concord event is consistently the No. 1 per-capita Making Strides event held in the United States, regularly taking in more than a half-million dollars in donations each year! This generous support by companies, organizations and individuals directly funds breast cancer research, patient programs and the services of The American Cancer Society.
Concord’s Garden of Hope is a community jewel – a place of solace, remembrance, beauty and, of course, eternal hope.
