Grove keeps growing in memory of lives lost

Last weekend’s 34th annual SPAIDS planting was a modest yet meaningful success with a number of people coming to add new trees and new memories to the Sydney Park AIDS Memorial Grove.

Started in 1994 by Mannie de Saxe and Kendall Lovett, the Sydney Park AIDS grove project has contributed over 8,000 trees to Sydney Park over the years. Traditionally planted to commemorate the lives of people who died from AIDS, the project has grown to include plantings to commemorate gays, lesbians and transgender people who died as a result of violence.

Positive Life NSW lent their support to the event this year via an advertising campaign, an act which the group’s president Rob Lake would like to see continue.

We ran the advertisements because we think SPAIDS is fantastic. We just think it’s fantastic that those guys every year organise the day and manage to look after the glade, he said.

There are friends of mine who planted trees 10 years ago that are still there and the knowledge that there are still people who want to remember people is great and trees are such a fantastic symbol.

info: To find out more about the history of SPAIDS or to get updates before next year’s event head to http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken/spaids.htm