Westfield Teens Propose Garden For Girl Killed By Trooper's Car

WESTFIELD, NJ — Terry DiFalco was a Westfield High School freshman when she was struck and killed by a car driven by a state trooper in 2017. She was crossing the street at the time, participating in a theater program scavenger hunt.

The Westfield community and friends of the DiFalco family, local boy and girl scouts, and students who were in her class (now seniors at the school), have proposed a few ways to remember her, including a memorial garden at a local park, and an outdoor "lil' library."

A friend of the family, Barry Obsgarten, will present a proposal at the Town Council meeting on Tuesday night.

The garden and library would be installed in conjunction with upcoming improvements to Sycamore Park on Central Avenue, according to the proposal written up by DiFalco family friends Marlene, Barry, and Anna Obsgarten; Councilman Mark LoGrippo, and Jaime Hamel, the leader of Cub Scout Pack 673. (The full proposal is below.)

The proposal says, "Terry DiFalco grew up in the Manor Park neighborhood on the South Side of Westfield. As a little girl she was known to make many trips to the Sycamore field playground with her parents Maureen and Frank and her sister Allie."

It notes her love of dogs, saying the lil' library would be shaped like a dog house.

"There she would play on the playground, enjoy the outdoors, meet the neighbors, the neighborhood children, and all of the dogs of Manor Park," says the proposal. "Our goal is to honor Terry in the place that she loved."

Last month, the Scout troop presented plans to the city's Board of Recreation for the small outdoor library — Terry's Lil' Library —and two benches.

The garden would also include a memorial plaque and a pumpkin patch, with pumpkins donated to needy families. Volunteers would maintain the patch, including the Westfield Garden Club and Boy and Girl Scouts.

The senior class at Westfield High and the Theater Program will help raise funds for the project.

While no criminal charges were filed against the trooper whose car hit Terry on the night of March 4, 2017, the family later filed a lawsuit against him, the state police, and the Board of Education, since the kids were participating in a theater program scavenger hunt when she was hita.

This past November, TAPinto and NJ.com reported that at some point before the trooper hit her, he sent a text to a woman saying, "I had fun. You're sweet and I want to see you again." The information came out during testimony in a 2018 about the crash. The trooper responded that he was not texting when the crash occurred.

The trooper was off-duty at the time. He lived in Scotch Plains at the time and now lives in Cranford, TAPinto reported.

The council meeting will take place at the Westfield Municipal Building, 425 East Broad St. at 7 p.m.

Here is the proposal, in full:

<blockquote>Terry DiFalco grew up in the Manor Park neighborhood on the South Side of Westfield. As a little girl she was known to make many trips to the Sycamore field playground with her parents Maureen and Frank and her sister Allie. There she would play on the playground, enjoy the outdoors, meet the neighbors, the neighborhood children and all of the dogs of Manor Park.Our goal is to honor Terry in the place that she loved by dedicating a portion of the Sycamore Field Playground and some amenities as a memorial to Terry DiFalco.

Below is a proposal for dedicating a portion of the Sycamore Field Playground and some amenities as a memorial to Terry.

We would like this project to coincide with the upcoming improvements that will be made to the Sycamore Field Playground. Our timeline will be to execute the Terry DiFalco Memorial aspects in coordination with the playground improvements. The memorial aspects of this will be:

1. Install 2 sitting benches for visitors of the playground to sit and relax and watch their children play on the new playground.
2. Install a small Plaque with a simple and loving message such as “For Terry”
3. Install a mini lending library, with the style theme of a dog house.
4. Create a space to make a pumpkin patch and flower garden by clearing some of the brush (leaving the trees intact) and making a garden that is able to be planted.

We expect to conduct fund raising through various sources for the suggested improvements and desire to include them with the Sycamore Playground replacement project . A GoFundMe page will be one of the fund raising methods used for this and will be circulated amongst The Class of 2020 at WHS (Terry’s Class), the Theater Program at WHS, The rest of the classes at WHS, Town Social Media Sites, The Girl Scouts / Brownies, The Boy / Cub Scouts, etc.

We plan to involve the Girls Scouts, The Boy / Cub Scouts, The Garden Club of Westfield, community volunteers and friends of the DiFalco family to plant and maintain the pumpkin patch and Flower Garden and plan to have a ceremony before Halloween to give away the pumpkins to low income families in the community.</blockquote>