PINK UP: Meditation garden in Laurel promotes breast cancer awareness

LAUREL, Miss. (WDAM) - In Laurel, on the corner of Central Avenue and Spec Wilson Boulevard, you can find pink blooms throughout a meditation garden.

“All the plants in the garden were donated by local merchants,” Secretary of Park Place Garden Club Trisha Keyes said.

The meditation garden is a breast cancer awareness project created by Park Place Garden Club.

“It’s just a great place to come and meditate and pray for your friends and family that have suffered from breast cancer,” Keyes said.

This garden means a lot to Park Place Garden Club member Ellen Brown, who is also a breast cancer survivor.

“I don’t pass downtown unless I make this circle and see this garden and feel pride,” Brown said. “I do come and sit and reflect on what I’ve been through and what so many women have been through.”

Brown says she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2006 after a routine mammogram.

“The key to my survival was that mammogram that found that lump early,” Brown said. “I would have never had any symptoms. I would have been dead before I had symptoms. It was that aggressive.”

Brown has been cancer free for 15 years. She encourages women to schedule their annual mammograms. She also thanks her club for creating a place that promotes awareness.

“I am so honored that Park Place Garden Club decide to plant this garden,” Brown said. “So many of our lives have been touched by breast cancer, and to me, it means an awful lot.

The club invites breast cancer survivors, survivors of other cancers and visitors, to stop by the meditation garden and reflect on their personal journeys.

“We hope that they’ll come and sit and enjoy the time in the garden just reflecting and just meditating and just enjoying our city,” Keyes said.

“I think anybody can come sit here and reflect, pray and meditate,” Brown said. “Just have a quiet time by themselves in the busy hustle and bustle of Downtown Laurel.”

The meditation garden has received the “Plant It Pink” award from The Garden Clubs of Mississippi, Inc.

In October, Hope, the scarecrow, was also added to the garden to promote breast cancer awareness.

To learn more about Park Place Garden Club, click HERE.

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