MOSCOW, Idaho — Wednesday was an emotional day for the friends and family of the four University of Idaho students who were murdered in 2022.
On August 21, the Vandal Healing Garden was dedicated in front of hundreds of people by the university to honor the memory of students who died while enrolled.
The idea for the Vandal Healing Garden came about after the murder of U of I students Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin.
The students’ families attended the dedication to experience how the memorial will honor their lost loved ones for decades to come.
“In years and years and years, this tragedy won’t be so fresh in everyone’s minds and those names won’t be so memorable to the kids on campus in 20 years. But they will, because their names are there and they’re never going anywhere,” said Kristi Goncalves.
The garden is meant to give students and families space to process their feelings of sadness and grief.
“Sometimes, it’s hard to let your emotions out and sometimes, it’s even hard just to talk to someone, so the fact that there’s this place here that you can come at night, especially with the beacon… I think it will be a cool place just to express your emotions,” said U of I student, Dylan Gomez.
The volunteers who helped put the garden together said they can’t put into words how meaningful the space is to the community.
“We got to experience the whole process. It was really rewarding. Today was really rewarding. To be able to give back to the community and give this university something that’s been missing for so long, it was really amazing,” said U of I graduate student and volunteer, Jackson Wiedenfeld.
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