Several thousand dollars will be put to use to enhance a park commemorated to the memory of a young girl who was brutally murdered more than two decades ago.
“This means so much for us and the community,” said Roxanne Wilson, mom of six-year-old Adrianne Wadhams, whose battered and sexually abused body was found June 3, 1989 in a wooded area near Beaver Harbour Trailer Park where she lived.
Her killer, then a 15-year-old Port Hardy boy, was convicted of first-degree murder and is still behind bars.
The Adrianne Wadhams Memorial Park in Fort Rupert was commemorated several years ago, but has since fallen into disrepair.
A recently received federal grant of $11,000 will go towards new playground equipment and other changes to the park, said Sandy Sewid, one of the people spearheading the project.
“I was working with the elders in the community and was wondering how we could improve (the park),” she said.
“We had planned on doing commemoration benches — traditional carving or painting — for each family in the park,” she said.
The revitalization of the park has inspired the community, which has since instituted a Neighbourhood Watch program.
In addition to the federal cash, the community has raised another $3,000, said Sewid. “We plan on doing other fundraisers too.”