Lake Forest's El Toro Memorial Park To Host Garden of Innocence Service

LAKE FOREST, CA — The California Special Districts Association reported a partnership between the Orange County Cemetery District and the Garden of Innocence, to offer interment services to abandoned children.

Each Garden of Innocence interment service at the Orange County Cemetery District brings out residents of the surrounding community to pay tribute to a stranger they do not know.

According to Elissa Davey, Founder of the Garden of Innocence, “The community of Orange County has embraced the Garden of Innocence. They’ve donated toys, they’ve decorated the garden, and they’ve come together to be the family for a child who has been abandoned.”

“We felt it was important for the district to have a Garden of Innocence in Orange County to meet the unique needs of the community and provide dignified interment services for those children who have been abandoned," Orange County Cemetery District General Manager Tim Deutsch said of the project.

The first Garden of Innocence was started in San Diego in 1998. More information on the Garden of Innocence is available at www.gardenofinnocence.org.

"All of the people who come are paying tribute to a stranger they don't even know," Davey said. They form a circle around the garden and pass the urn around the garden, so they can say that they touched this child, and that the child has touched their hearts."

Orange County Cemetery District, created in 1984, owns and operates the three public cemeteries in Orange County. Those cemeteries, Anaheim Cemetery (established in 1866), El Toro Memorial Park (established in 1896) and Santa Ana Cemetery (established in 1870), cover a combined 70 acres and provide an affordable interment option for residents of Orange County.

The three Orange County cemeteries offer traditional in-ground casket and urn burials, above ground niches, and rose gardens for direct cremation burials.

"The Garden of Innocence is a community endeavor, and the things that they have done surpass what many of the cemeteries do for us," Davey said. "This is the only Garden of Innocence service where the general manager of the cemetery and the manager of the grounds crew has come to every service."

Special districts are publicly owned and overseen local government agencies that provide specialized local services to millions of Californians.

The Garden of Innocence service is scheduled to occur at 10 a.m. on June 24, 2017 at the El Toro Memorial Park, located at 25751 Trabuco Road, Lake Forest, CA 92630.

Those interested in attending, can find more information at www.occemeterydistrict.com or by calling the office at (949) 951-9102, extension 110.

To learn more about special districts, visit www.DistrictsMakeTheDifference.org.

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