The Virden Memory Tree is now officially illuminated for the 2021 Holiday Season.
Gina Bradbury, Treasurer of the Memory Tree Committee, welcomed members of the public to a brief ceremony on Seventh Avenue downtown on the evening of November 25. She appreciated the return to some normalcy after COVID-19 put a damper on the event in 2020.
“We did have a light up (ceremony) last year…it was our committee and that was it,” she said. “It was nice this year, because we could get people from the community to come out and it was nice to see as many as we did get out on the cold evening.”
Funds raised through the campaign are contributed towards improvements at the cemetery. Installation of washroom facilities, the most recent project, was one of the most significant in recent years.
“That’s one of our biggest ones,” Bradbury said. “We’re very proud of that and we have had a few members who have passed on that did start that a long time ago, and now we finally have it finished.”
There’s always an eye out to do more.
“What we want to do is make some wrought iron hooks to hang the numbers of the sections on. That’s something we’re looking into for this year, but we have to get the Town's (of Virden) approval and go from there.”
As in the past, donation boxes have been placed in businesses around Virden. Bulbs may be purchased for $5.00 in memory of lost loved ones, whose names are displayed on the boards beside the tree.
