Memorial garden breaks ground.

Byline: Andrea Damewood The Register-Guard

The memorial garden will be planted with love and tended with care.

Its harvest, organizers at Mothers Against Drunk Driving hope, will be a place of peace where loved ones of those killed by intoxicated drivers can heal and remember.

On Saturday morning, with gold-plated shovels, the garden's supporters broke the soil of the small space near the Hays Memorial Tree Garden, at the edge of Alton Baker Park in Eugene.

"I felt my sister was right next to me, saying `Go for it!' ' said Thomasina Buckner, whose 29-year-old sister, Kimberly Utterback, was killed by a drunken driver in Veneta on June 23, 1997. "I felt like I had to be here."

Once finished, the 50-foot-long garden will have a walkway, granite benches, rhododendrons, azaleas, cypresses and a weeping hemlock. It will also hold more than 300 names of those killed by drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The garden is the only memorial of its kind in the state, MADD Executive Director Lois Harvick said. Its prominent location along the a path near the Cuthbert Amphitheatre and Autzen Stadium will help raise public awareness, she said.

"We don't like to think about it, but we are all one instant away from (a drunken driving accident) happening to anyone," said former Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey - who lost his son, Tim, to a drunken driver in 1978 - during a speech before the groundbreaking. "You must understand: The pain never goes away. It may change, but it never goes away."

Many at the groundbreaking lost a friend or family member decades ago.

For others, like Myrna Cummings, the wounds were far more fresh.

Her son, Shawn Cummings, 26; his girlfriend, Tamera Lewallen, 26; and their 4-year-old daughter, Jillian Cummings, all died following a high-speed collision on their way to get ice cream on May 26, 2006.

Myrna Cummings shoveled soil with the help of Shawn's 7-year-old daughter, Kierra, who was at a birthday party when her father and half-sister were killed.

"I've got a feeling it's going to take a long time (to heal)," Myrna Cummings said. "(Kierra) can come remember her daddy and sister. It's kind of nice to have somewhere for her to go."

Shawn, Tamera and Jillian's names will be among the first 39 added to the memorial.

For David Hanson, the garden will be a place where he can contemplate what could have been.

Hanson, 30, drove drunk on Dec. 20, 1999. He crashed head-on with a tree on West 18th Avenue, nearly killing himself and his passenger. He now volunteers with MADD, speaking at schools and to convicted drunken drivers.

For him, the garden will be "about the prevention. It's about taking this and being able to use it as a tool of communication."

Hanson plans to visit the site with his wife and three daughters every Dec. 20.

The garden relies entirely on volunteer labor and donations of cash and supplies, so that MADD can provide the plaques to families for free, Harvick said. At the groundbreaking, the Delta Rotary Club contributed $5,000.

Volunteers plan to begin work in the garden within the next few weeks, she said.

"Our intention is to have this here for as long as possible," Harvick said.