KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Over 100 Santa Clarita residents gathered at Central Park Wednesday evening for the 10th anniversary of the annual Evening of Remembrance for the city of Santa Clarita’s Youth Grove.
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The Youth Grove is an area where friends and families can remember young lives, ages 24 and younger, lost from traffic-related incidents.
The Youth Grove is now home to 93 individual pillars, each bearing a plaque with the name of a young life lost.
The pillars, which mimic cut tree stumps to symbolize young lives cut short on the road, surround a central monument urging the community to “Know More” about safe driving habits and pledge that “No More” young lives will be lost behind the wheel.
The evening began with the Walk of Remembrance, followed by the Evening of Remembrance ceremony.
A white rose was given to the parents of the deceased for the Walk of Remembrance, who then put it on the tree stump in the Youth Grove bearing their child’s name.
In honor of all of the 93 names read, a bell was tolled and for each name, glow sticks were cracked.
Debbie Knight and Katherine Tabajdi helped found the the Santa Clarita Youth Grove memorial, said Tabajdi.
“It’s a blessing to see the support that the community has for each other, but the educational message is really important,” said Knight. “When it was started, there were three reasons: to remember the young people, to give them the young people a safe place to come to remember their friend and, the most important, is the educational tool to remind people that this is something that really happens that we can avoid by making good decisions… It’s a message for all of us.”
Tabajdi has eight friends and classmates who are honored at the Santa Clarita Youth Grove, however it was the death of her friend “CJ” in December of 2002 that sparked the idea.
When Tabajdi heard that CJ had been in a traffic collision, she was 19-years-old and pregnant.
“It was the first time I had experienced the death of a friend as a mother. I remember standing in the parking lot of the hospital after she had passed and my baby, now 12, jumped in my belly,” said Tabajdi. “My husband gently whispered to me, ‘he knows, he’s hugging you from the inside.’”
CJ’s passing affected Tabajdi in a “powerful way.” It was at CJ’s funeral that the memorial Knight conceived was first proposed, said Tabajdi.
“It’s an emotional time for me because I have two sons here, but it’s a time when we can come remember our children and to spread the word about safe driving,” said Alice Renolds, a member of the city of Santa Clarita’s Blue Ribbon Task Force, along with her husband, Tom.
The Renolds’ youngest sons, Danny and Timmy, were both killed in a car crash on Feb. 17, 2000.
“Any chance that we have to spread the word about safe driving, whether it’s reckless driving, texting, drinking and driving, whatever it is, we need to get the word out to kids as well as adults,” said Renolds. “They need to know that car they’re driving is a lethal weapon and that life is precious.”
The Renolds family now speaks at Every 15 Minutes events, Community Court, are members of the Blue Ribbon Task Force and attends the Evening of Remembrance.
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Many, many time our three children and I spent time at the somber and thought provoking Youth Grove site at Central Park after a friend of our families Childs name was sadly added to the grove. We as parents often took the time to speak with our own children about safety. Never, ever could we have imagined that one day one of our own three children would be added to the list of youngsters. It’s been almost three months since our child, Wyatt Anthony Savaikie, just 14 was killed instantly. He wasn’t j-walking, nor driving a car. Wyatt was in a marked crosswalk with the green light to walk. A mam in a SUV simply wasn’t paying attention and he struck our precious son at 45 plus miles an hour. We believe and pray they our son died instantly before he was sent 20 feet into a utility pole. We are now a family of four and still I can’t believe that our youngest son will never, ever walk through the door, that we will never hear his deep funny laugh, or see his giant big beautiful smile, or hear the words, I love you mom or dad. So we adults make mistakes, it isn’t just the youth driving crazy around SCV. We taught our children to be careful to be safe and yet in the end he was killed by someone in a hurry. Cars are like giant high speed weapons and all of us need to pay attention to the laws, all of us need to be alert to what is coming up in front of us, a red-light, a child, an animal, something in the road that fell of another car, we need to be mindful for our own protection and for our children, our elderly for all of our citizens. I believe this to be especially true in a community with such a high percentage of youth. We have all been a kid before, I know when I was I thought I’d live forever. We live in this valley where I feel the speed limits do not equate to survivability when not if a pedestrian verses vehicle accident occurs but when. My Gentle Giant is gone, in an instant just gone because someone was in a hurry, didn’t want to wait for another light, or wasn’t paying attention or all of the above. Just one careless act and our son was gone, only moments before he set with me talking about life, working out at the gym, how excited he was for high school, how he felt it would be a great time for him. He spoke about how he couldn’t wait to drive a car and much more, just a few minutes later the phone started ringing with my older son on the phone, mom he asked is Wyatt home, he isn’t at the gym. He isn’t answering his phone, mom please check his bedroom again, there has been a boy with a skateboard killed on Bouquet. It’s been nearly three long, heart breaking months and it still doesn’t feel real. So even when we teach our children to be safe there is no surviving a pedestrian-vehicle accident at the limits set all over this valley. I’m sure an extra few minutes spent on the road is worth your child, brother, daughter, mothers or loved ones life, there will always be accidents but on our streets, our speed limits leave no room for error. To lose a child, a completely unconditional love, is the worst pain, just like that, no time to prepare, no illness, no drugs nor drinking problems, not off to war, no dangerous job, just gone, no time to say goodbye, as he left that day, I said, be safe, I love you and said i love you Mom and a red-light driver took him from us, just like that, in a split second. Being at the ceremony last night was unbelievably painful, we taught safety, we really, really did. I don’t know what needs to change but seeing all those beautiful faces recognized last night is evidence that something must change, accidents happen and we know that to be true but if our speed limits were not as high at least our pedestrians would have a much better chance when someone makes an error, doesn’t pay attention and plows into a pedestrian using their vehicle as a weapon.
Teresa:
This was well said and perhaps you have found your own mission in working to lower our speed limits here in the valley. I am very sorry for your loss. I was heart sick when I heard about your son and saw, still another, road side memorial. Sometimes we as parents do everything we know how and still its not enough to keep our children safe. As a community, we can do our best to bring awareness in hopes that we can make a difference. Thank you for your attendance and comments.