Kevin Kane lost his life at 26 years old due to a rare form of cancer directly linked to his childhood days playing near what would later be designated the Nyanza superfund site. There were other related cases amongst Ashland's youth. So, after his diagnosis, Kevin devoted the rest of life getting to the root cause and eliminating the problem.

More than twenty years ago, Suzanne Condon (Assistant Commissioner of Health in Boston) said,
"It is hard to accurately estimate the numbers of people who have benefited from Kevin's courageous acts.   If we think about the number of people who were deemed at greatest risk of exposure-those, who as children had some contact with the NYANZA site during 1965-1985, the number would have been 2,500.   If you only add parents alone, that number triples to 7,500.   More realistically if you add siblings and the children that these children might have birthed, that number is surely to reach the tens of thousands mark.   Kevin Kane was an environmental health hero."

Eventually, concerned citizens realized the need for a place in Ashland where affected people could contemplate their feelings. A healing garden, a place meant for peace and meditation.

In 2016, a memorial was built to honor those affected by the rare cluster of childhood cancers.   It took shape as a healing garden, with stained-glass panels.   It sits just beyond the left field fence at the Ashland Middle School baseball field.  

There is a nice video of the original construction of the Healing Garden that was uploaded to YouTube as part of the Ashland-Nyanza Project.

We got a proposal from the Keefe Tech Horticulture & Management Team to enhance the overall aesthetic of the existing Healing Garden while preserving the native woodland setting.   They worked collaboratively on a planting design with a goal of using native plants while enhancing the forest setting in which the Healing Garden exists.

We were excited about the Keefe Tech proposal.   We were also excited about the successful implementation of their plan.

A few years ago there was damage to the stained glass. The Lions Club, guided by member Julian Doktor, and others who wanted to see the garden restored to its original beauty and took on the clean up as a project.

As time progressed, it became apparent that Memorial Healing Garden can have value to those who have had or are having any type of hardship, and for their families that suffer with them.  

It can provide healing for all victims, not just those whose hardship stems from cancer.