Storytelling Garden to open as complement to Oct. 1 Healing Garden

Las Vegans now have another place to remember, and share with one another, the experience and lessons of Oct. 1.

The Las Vegas Storytelling Garden, just north of the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden, will be a place to honor the memory of the 60 people who lost their lives after being shot at the Route 91 Harvest festival on Oct. 1, 2017.

The Storytelling Garden is envisioned as a complement to, rather than an expansion of, the Healing Garden, said Greg A. Weitzel, Las Vegas director of parks and recreation, as “a place for survivors and families and the community to move forward in healing and a place to come together and relax.”

Mauricia Baca, executive director of Get Outdoors Nevada, which coordinates volunteers for the Healing Garden and will do the same for the Storytelling Garden, said that, while the Healing Garden is a place for reflection, the Storytelling Garden will be a place “to come together and share stories,” and even serve as a venue for various sorts of programming.

“There are certain gatherings that we maybe would not do at the Healing Garden but we might want to do … at the Storytelling Garden,” Baca said.

Weitzel said construction of the Storytelling Garden began Jan. 27. A formal dedication probably will be held in January.

However, an environmentally friendly building designed by UNLV architecture students won’t be placed on the site until December, Weitzel said. The structure will serve as visitor center and volunteer office for both gardens.

The Storytelling Garden, on the southeastern corner of Casino Center Boulevard and Coolidge Avenue, formerly was a vacant parcel. Improvements included landscaping and irrigation, new lighting and fencing, Weitzel said.

The park’s landscaping also includes peach and apple trees. Plans are for volunteers to pick the trees’ fruit, which will be donated to charities around town.

The Storytelling Garden’s $948,000 construction costs come from the city’s capital improvements fund, Weitzel said.

Contact John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.