Chaminade Scout Restores Garden at Maria Regina

Memorials are meant to preserve the memory of a person or event. However, when memorials start to deteriorate, the reminder they stand for can as well.

Richard Cantar, a student at Chaminade High School, noticed that the children's garden at Maria Regina Catholic Church in Seaford needed repair and took it upon himself to restore it.

In preparation for becoming obtaining Eagle Scout status from boy scout troop 239, Cantar had to create and implement a project on his own. The 16-year old has been a member of the Maria Regina his entire life, and decided that the children's garden would be his chosen focus. The garden is meant to be a memorial for living and deceased members of the parish and deceased members from 9/11. On Sat., Aug. 21 and Sun., Aug. 22, the restoration of the garden took place.

"I think it will give the parishioners a good place to relax and its meant to be a place to honor deceased members of the parish so for it to be in such a state of disrepair its dishonorable," Cantar said. "I really think fixing it up honors the memory of those deceased members."

There was a lot of preparation for the restoration. Cantar contacted the liaison with boy scouts in the parish to see if this project was something the church would be interested in. He then planned the entire project from start to finish, including what had to be done and the order that it had to be done in.

Cantar reached out to local organizations and businesses for donations of supplies and materials. In addition, he educated himself by speaking to gardening experts and masonry and carpentry people, who explained what needed to be done and how to do it. Cantar also obtained services from local businesses, such as someone to remove debris and another person to build repairs for the garden fence and sign. Finally he reached out to the parish, his troop members and the community for volunteers to implement the project.

"It was a huge turn out," said Maureen Cantar, Richard's mother, adding that there were 82 people helping with the project on August 21 and 22 in addition to seven people that did prep work in the week before. "A lot of people helped and supported."

Father Peter J. Pflomm, pastor of Maria Regina Catholic Church, was pleased with the outcome of the project and the amount of people who came to support and take part in the restoration of the garden of remembrance. He is hoping to implement ongoing maintenance of the garden so it will stay in the newly improved condition.

For further information about the project to enhance the children's garden at Maria Regina, e-mail Cantar at richardseagle@gmail.com.