| Garden of Innocence/Las Vegas, Nevada |
Garden of Innocence/Las Vegas, Nevada
December 2, 2009
We received a phone call from a Linda Coleman who was given our name and she wanted to know what happened to us when we came to Clark County to start a Garden of Innocence there. We told our story and the outcome of our efforts.
She recently found out while attending a service for a child that the county would pay for the burial of children in their jurisdiction but not pay for the headstones and was outraged to find that there were 98 children buried with no headstone. Many reporters have also called us to hear our story and what did we think of this new issue in their county.
We told them that it is sad as we offered to do this for free for the county and provide headstones for every child, but they turned us away.
If we could raise the funds, we would gladly place the childrens names on the lawn and offer the naming to the community so that they would receive names that were given to them with love.
A name is a dignity that every human being deserves.
We hope that someday Clark County will open their hearts and allow Garden of Innocence/Las Vegas to grow in their area so no child leaves this earth without people knowing they were once there and coming to a service to give them a homegoing filled with the love and dignity they deserve.
Keep your fingers crossed, there may be hope yet!
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May 2008, we returned to Vegas to meet with the social service department again as well as a representative from Michael Murphys office and a representative from the hospital board. The social service department told us that they took offense with us because my partner, Dr. Netreia Carroll, came into the office carrying her Bible & they are county buildings and nondenominational. I told them that she is a minister and carries it everywhere she goes and was not intended to offend anyone. Netreia told them that she will make sure that she leaves her Bible in the car from now on. They thought that we take aborted children and we told them that it is Garden of Innocence's policy that we never take aborted children as we do not get involved in controversial or political issures. As a non profit it is in our bylaws.
They informed us that Palm Mortuary already does this for the county for free so if we get their approval before we can proceed.
We met with Ned Phillips of Palm Mortuary and shared our story and gave him our video and he told us he would get back to us. He also took us over to Palm Cemetery in Henderson to show us the spot where the former governors wife dedicated a memorial for all abandoned children where there were about 15 graves set aside. They were all empty.
We called Ned Phillips back after a month and he told us that Palm was not interested in doing business with us.
We were defeated!
April 14, 2008
ALMOST READY
Garden of Innocence in Las Vegas, Nevada is in the growing stage.
We have one more hurdle and that is to appear before the Clark County Board of Commissioners. We have been meant with the Clark county medical examiner, Michael Murphy and also the social services department to gain their respect so we can take over the handling of all future abandoned and unidentified babies for Clark County Nevada.
We are currently speaking with the Firefighters Wives Club of Las Vegas as they are interested in running the Garden there and maybe have the Las Vegas fire fighters building casket.
Bunker Cemetery will consider giving us 50 spaces in their beautiful cemetery for these little babies that no one cared about. They are also giving us room to expand if needed.
If you are interested in donating or volunteering for Garden of Innocence/Las Vegas please send your donation and write us at :
P.O. Box 722 Carlsbad, CA 92008
or email us at goinational@hotmail.com
You can also send your donation to Radio Station KCEP 88.1 FM the power of the people Station in Las vegas to the care of "Galaxy" : 330 W. Washington Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada 89106. Galaxy is one of the radio personalities of the station and also a personal friend of Netreia's. They stand behind us in this endeavor & support us with this great cause.
Make your check payable to Garden of Innocence National and specify Las Vegas.
We need everyone to come together as a community to care for these little ones.
Items needed here will be 30 x 30 hand made blankets, beanie baby toys & caskets. Please see our page on caskets for the proper demensions and style.
We appreciate all that you do for the babies in Garden of Innocence/Las Vegas
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June of 2007, we wrote Michael Murphy and the social service department asking for a letter of approval from their departments so we can go before the commissioners to present our program and see if we could be approved at the state level as well. I received no responseJanuary 2007: We met with the County coroner, Michael Murphy and sat with him and told him about Garden of Innocence and showed him or video. He left the room and came back with two other people in his office and we showed the video again. He felt that we would be a great asset to Clark County in the fact that we are totally non profit and that we are here to provide only a dignified burial for abandoned children.
Mr. Murphy told us that he is only involved in the indigent children if the child comes through the coroners office. Usually that would happen if there is an investigation that needs to be completed on a child such as a child that was found in the trash or died of suspicious circumstances. He told us that we had to pass muster with the social services department across the parking lot.
We walked across the parking lot to meet with the manager there, Ms. Salmon. She invited, Ms. Sena, Ms. Walkins, Ms Butler & Ms. Wilde to come meet with us as well.
We showed them our video, which brought tears to their eyes and explained that all we want to do is provide a dignified burial for the abandoned children.
They told us that they like what we do but they do not get involved with the children unless a volunteer mortuary asks to be paid and they have to cut a check. So we don't need their permission or approval as it is not part of their job discription.
We left there feeling very good about a new garden in Las Vegas.
We drove to the County Commissioners office to see if we could be placed on the agenda at the next meeting and were told to leave our information for Rory Reids office to approve. We were told to check back in a a month, but never heard back from his office.
We drove around Vegas looking for cemetery offices so that we could find a place that would have an area that could be donated to us or that we could raise the funds in Nevada to pay for a space. We spoke to the office personnal of Bunker Mortuary and were told that we need to meet with their manager Celina. The next day we drove back to Bunker and were able to meet with Celina and she told us that she could think of a beautiful spot that would be perfect for the children.
We left Vegas with high hopes.
DONATIONS AND VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
If you would like to donate to this worthy endeavor please send you donation to the address below or visit our donation tab below. If you would like your donation to go to a certain Garden of Innocence please write it in the memo section of your check.
If you would like to volunteer in any garden please write us and let us know.
If you would like to volunteer for a future Garden of Innocence in Las Vegas, please write us at GOILasVegas@live.com
Once we are allowed to get there we will be able to get in touch with all of you to get the ball rolling. We appreciate your caring hearts.Garden of Innocence National P.O. Box 722 Carlsbad, CA 92008
888-535-4772 Goinational@hotmail.com or GOILasVegas@live.com |
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