ROGERS — The Rev. Pamela Cicioni and Dr. J. Thaddeus Beck both lost loved ones to cancer over the course of a couple weeks in 2016.
Cancer statistics in 2017
• Cancer is the second most common cause of death in the U.S., exceeded only by heart disease, and accounts for nearly one out of every four deaths.
• Approximately 1.6 million Americans have cancer. About 600,920 Americans are expected to die of cancer in 2017, or 1,650 people per day.
• An estimated 16,040 cancer patients live in Arkansas.
• About 6,800 Arkansans died of cancer this year. One third of those deaths were from lung and bronchus cancer.
• More than 15.5 million Americans with a history of cancer were alive on Jan. 1, 2016.
• 87 percent of all cancers in the U.S. are diagnosed in people 50 years of age or older.
Source: American Cancer Society
Beck lost his mother, who was also his patient at Highlands Oncology Group. Cicioni, the spiritual director for the Highlands Group, lost her best friend. The two took a walk on the Highlands grounds together while grieving and found peace in watching the sunset.
Coming up
The following Healing Gardens of NWA events are scheduled at Highlands Oncology, 808 S. 52nd St., Rogers.
Sept. 28
Sprouting Hope will be the first educational program. The luncheon will feature an ABC horticulture correspondent.
Oct. 14
Art on the Creeks will include an art stroll along the trail to Village on the Creeks. Guests are encouraged to park at Highlands Oncology and spend a day on the trail going through art booths that will line it.
Source: Staff report
“He said ‘Look at God’s glory,’” Cicioni said. It gave her the idea of creating a reflective garden area for the patients and families of Highlands to similarly find peace. “He told me ‘Do it.’”
Beck had the other 10 physicians of Highlands in agreement shortly after the conversation to dedicate some of the group’s 10 acres to the project.
The physicians’ group accepted a $100 check this week from the Healing Gardens of NWA board of directors to lease 2.5 acres for 100 years with the option of an additional 50 years.
Healing Gardens of NWA is a nonprofit organization created to develop the project. It will be a reflective space for the public to enjoy nature, think or pray and connect with others. The American Cancer Society encourages patients to use relaxation and visualization techniques to reduce stress, according to its website.
Rachel Cox, executive director of the nonprofit group, said only one location of gardens is planned at this time.
“This is a first step of many,” Cox said Thursday. “We’re here to celebrate Highlands Oncology being generous.”
The Healing Gardens will be built directly west of Highlands Oncology on land that abuts the Razorback Regional Greenway and Horsebarn Road. The practice is next to I-49 less than a mile north of Village on the Creeks.
The gardens will include walking paths, a waterfall, a reflecting pool, stone stacking, a sanctuary, a labyrinth, a secret garden and a gathering area. Renderings show a teepee-like structure at the edge of the reflection pool. It will cost $5.6 million.
“It will be an amazing amenity for patients, staff, physicians, but also for the community,” Cox said. The grounds will be open to the public.
A fundraising campaign begun in late July has raised the $300,000 to pay for the design phase, Cox said. Contractor Ron Troutman of Boulder Construction will be leading the project. Troutman was contractor for 27 miles of the Razorback Greenway and for exterior projects at Crystal Bridges.
Landscape architecture firm Howell & Vancuren, which performed landscape architecture services for Crystal Bridges, the BOK Center in Tulsa and Chicago Botanical Garden, also was selected. Maurice and Walter Jennings are the project’s architects. The teams hope to break ground in early 2018 and construction will be completed in phases as money comes in, Cox said.
“When you’re diagnosed with cancer, you come into it with shock,” Cicioni said. She wanted a place where people could pray and find cleansing and renewal. The garden’s elements of water, prayer space and sanctuary are all about that.
“It’s about having a place to cry, dance and laugh,” Cicioni said.
Cox said the Healing Gardens have four ways to find healing for the body, mind and soul through health and wellness, education, arts integration and building community.
The walking paths and connectivity to trailways provide the health element, along with yoga, tai chi and other fitness classes that will be taught by Highlands staff.
For women with breast cancer, research shows those who practice yoga may have less stress and fatigue, and better quality of life, according to the American Cancer Society.
Partnerships with the University of Arkansas Horticulture Extension Office, as well as primary and secondary schools, will bring students to the gardens to learn about ecosystems, plants and unplug from technology, she said. Healing Gardens tentative collaborations with Compton Gardens in Bentonville and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art may lead to more programming that would take place on the trails.
The nature of the gardens being open to everyone will naturally bring people together, Cox said. A booth with yard games will encourage people to connect.
“It’s open to everyone; that’s what’s great about it,” said Dora Poage, a board
member. “My mother would have loved this place; we could have taken walks together there.”
Poage said she’s looking forward to seeing the waterfall.
Board member Michele Lambert thinks people will connect most with the nature element.
“I grew up in Cumberland, Va., in nature, and it taught me about myself and gave me peace and joy,” Lambert said. “This will give peace to others and a place of solitude to connect with themselves.”
Alisha Pettigrew Gourley, who also is on the board, believes the garden will be a great help to caregivers.
“Selfishly, it would have been great for me,” Pettigrew Gourley said. Her grandmother spent six months battling cancer. “It was intense to be there for her, and you need nourishment.”
Pettigrew Gourley imagines the gardens as a place children can enjoy and people with all kinds of struggles can connect with each other.