Inspired by a project in Liverpool a number of community partners, led by the Soroptimist club of Enfield, are planning a memorial for all those from or during the COVID pandemic. Called the Enfield Living Memorial the project aims to create a space for the collective bereavement of the people of Enfield and will have thirty trees planted in the shape of a heart. Once completed a fire sculpture, in the form of a phoenix, will mark a symbolic point of letting go. Afterwards a permanent artwork will sit in the same location. The phoenix was chosen as it offers an open idea of loss and renewal.
Enfield Soroptimist Margaret Turnbull said: The Soroptimist’s are marking their international centenary with tree planting projects that remember a project in 1921 which saved a forest of giant redwoods. When a living memorial of trees was suggested for Enfield we felt it was something that both honoured our history but also enabled us to do something important for Enfield. We hope others will support it as well.”
The steering group has spent months considering the options on where it could site the memorial within the Borough. Enfield Town Park was chosen after looking at practical and technical limitations as the memorial will be well over thirty meters across when finished. Parking, public transport, and nearby facilities also influenced the decision. Enfield Town Park also felt right as it symbolically sits in the heart of the Borough.
The project will be reliant on funding raised from the public and from organisations who wish to support it. The steering group is costing the different elements of the scheme but estimates the budget will be anywhere between £10,000 and £15,000 depending on what in-kind support it finds.
If people wish to be a part of the project they can simply help to raise the funding needed for this living memorial. Every contribution whether one pound or one hundred pounds is of equal merit because every donation will play a part in creating this public memorial.
More details about the project, including making donations, are available from the project’s Home Page enfieldlivingmemorial.org