Sandy Edmiston Meditation Labyrinth Dedication Scheduled Oct. 22
Posted on Monday, October 2, 2006
The meditation labyrinth will be formally dedicated Sunday, Oct. 22, at 2 p.m. at the Westminster College Field Station, 937 Fayette-New Wilmington Road in New Wilmington, to Sandy Edmiston, a 2005 Westminster graduate who died in a rock climbing accident in Aug. 2005.
"Friends and family of Sandy created this meditation labyrinth as a permanent memorial,' said Dr. Clarence Harms, director of the Westminster College Field Station. "There are seven stone-lined lanes in this classic labyrinth, all connected into one path. The center, which is 15 feet in diameter, is lined with unique stones - all given with love by friends and family of Sandy. The monumental slab, weighing perhaps a ton and also a gift from family and friends, forms a bench in the center for a walker to stop, sit, contemplate, and benefit from the peaceful surrounds. The large rock at the entrance bears a bronze plaque with a quote from Sandy's poetry that reads To live anew in colors that fade as the leaves return to the earth.'"
"The thought behind the memorial contributions to the Field Station was to continue the mission, to get the word spread and the work done that was so important to Sandy," said Kati Edmiston, Sandy's mother and assistant director of the Westminster Career Center. "If the labyrinth and rock sculpture bring people to the Field Station and facilitate their learning about its mission and contemplating mother earth, her beauty, her gifts, her underlying fragileness, and each individual's roles as her stewards, that would truly carry things on."
The labyrinth was designed by Mary Burris of New Castle, a student in the landscape architecture degree program at Chatham College. The planning and assembling the labyrinth is her thesis project. The site was surveyed, leveled, covered with ground cloth, and then topped with a layer of gravel. The excavation of the plot and retaining wall was contributed by Dennis Salmon of Wallace Builders. It took friends, neighbors, and family of Sandy three hours of labor until the landscaping was virtually complete.
The public is welcome to the dedication. Contact Harms at (724) 946-8520 or e-mail harmsc@westminster.edu for more information, or visit www.westminster.edu and click on "About WC" and "Notes for the Field Station.
More Stories
