Hana St. Julianna’s family creates Hana’s Garden, a space designed to honor her and three other teens who died in the Oxford High School shooting on November 30, 2021 announced the plan.
The gardens will be the first project of the Hana St. Juliana Memorial Fund, a new fund managed by the Four County Community Foundation, a non-profit community organization operating in Oakland, Macomb, St. Clair and Lapier counties.
“The purpose of Hana’s Garden is to create a place for the community to remember the four lost students,” Hana’s father, Steve St. Julianna, said in an announcement from the foundation.
Work on the gardens at Seymour Lake Park in Oxford is scheduled to begin in spring 2023.
Detroit-based architecture firm Smith Group will provide services to produce the final blueprints for the garden, while Oxford landscaping firm Heritage & Company will oversee and coordinate the project.
The initial concept for the garden was created by Chris Nordstrom of Ann Arbor-based Carlyle Wortman Associates.
Steve St. Julianna said that the original plan was to create a small memorial for Hana, but the success of the fundraiser in Lake Orion in April 2022 changed the scope of the final concept. said.
The updated plan calls for a central plaza with four pergolas and benches and sculptures on four sides honoring his daughters, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Maia and Justin Schilling. There are also water features, boardwalks, rain gardens and boardwalks.
The purpose of this fund is to remember and celebrate the lives of the victims of the Oxford shooting and to support initiatives that can prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Contributions to the fund are directed towards immediate projects, including gardens. Once these initial projects are completed, the remaining funds will be donated to maintain the gardens and promote healing and prevention programs.
For more information about the Hannah St. Juliana Memorial Fund, please call (810) 798-0909 or contact the Foundation’s Executive Director, Kathy Dickens (kdickens@4ccf.org).