On March 29, You Have the Power’s “Voices from the Garden” event commemorated the lives of Nashville children lost to violence in 2017-18, while also announcing plans for a revitalization of the Children’s Memory Garden of Nashville.
The event, held at the Centennial Park Art Center, included remarks from the Honorable David Briley, Mayor of Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, as well as Andrea Conte, YHTP’s founder and chair of its Board of Directors.
Each family in attendance received a copy of “Voices from the Garden”, a memory book featuring photos and vignettes of the children we have lost. They also received letters of condolence signed by Glenn Funk, District Attorney for Tennessee’s 20th Judicial District; Steve Anderson, Chief of the Metro Nashville Police Department; as well as Briley and Conte.
We would like to thank all of the volunteers and YHTP staff who contributed to the creation of the memory book and the “Voices in the Garden” event. But most of all, we wish to thank all the families who shared stories about their children, helping to personalize the issues of youth violence and child abuse in Metro-Nashville Davidson County.
Several local TV and radio stations covered the “Voices in the Garden” event; links to their coverage follow:
Includes an interview by Forrest Sanders with Shantika Begley, whose daughter Debrianah was honored during the event.
Report filed by NewsChannel 5’s Eric Hilt. Features comments by YHTP CEO Cathy Gurley and Mara Battle, great-aunt of Sam’marie and Samaii Daniel.
Tony Gonzalez’s report includes an interview with Kennda Watkins Sr. (see caption).