Las Vegas Community Healing Gardens

The Las Vegas Community Healing Garden, located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, was created days after a shooter, Stephen Paddock, opened fire on a crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the night of October 1st, 2017. Community volunteers and the Get Outdoors Nevada (GON) designed and built this special permanent place of healing and are the caretakers of the garden which serves as a place of calm remembrance for those affected by the tragedy. The garden celebrates life and compassion and features 58 “trees of life” donated by Siegfried and Roy to signify the 58 lives that were lost that night, as well as a Remembrance Wall, pictures, flowers, and other offerings from the community to signify their condolences (History, 2018). This site is open to anyone wishing to heal from this event or simply remember what happened the night of this tragic event.

Route 91 Harvest Festival is a three-day country music festival held annually on Las Vegas Boulevard. On the night of October 1st, 2017, Between 10:05-10:15, Stephen Paddock fired more than 1,100 rounds of ammunition from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel on a crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 people before killing himself. The shooter's actions also injured 851 people, with 422 being injured directly by gunfire and th rest harmed in the resulting panic to escape the area. This incident is the deadliest mass shooting committed by a single individual in U.S. history at the time.

Only days after the shooting, the community created a place of peace with help from the Get Outdoors Nevada and the LV Community Healing Garden Community. Jay Pleggenkuhle, the owner of the Stonerose Landscape, called the EON office and said, “A garden is a source of life... it brings people peace.” Others agreed, and work began on creating a permanent healing garden memorial. Pleggenkuhle sketched a garden on a napkin, and before noon, donations started to pour in. More than a thousand people offered time, money, and materials for this project to be built.

 Crosby, Rachel. “Remembrance Wall Dedicated at Las Vegas Community Healing Garden.” Journal. Las Vegas Journal, October 2, 2018. https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/shootings/remembrance-wall-dedicated-at-las-vegas-community-healing-garden/.

HISTORY. (2018). Gunman opens fire on Las Vegas concert crowd, wounding hundreds and killing 58. [online] Available at: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/2017-las-vegas-shooting [Accessed 22 Oct. 2019].

En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Stephen Paddock. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Paddock [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019].

Woods, Alden. “Volunteers Create Healing Garden Just Days after Las Vegas Shooting.” USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, October 6, 2017. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/10/05/volunteers-create-healing-garden-just-days-after-las-vegas-shooting/738323001/.