LIVE from The Travelers Championship: Eli's Garden of Healing

LIVE from The Travelers Championship: Eli's Garden of Healing
Founders Crystal Cathcart and Kyle Zukauskas share the healing hope of Eli's Garden for those affected by violence of any kind, especially gun violence.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, Heart Communities. Here weare live from the Travelers Championship. We're
in the fan zone right next toMini Golf. It's Bertie's for Charity the
last day of play. This isyour chance to donate to these charities where
they get to earn fifteen percent onevery dollar, all because of Webster Bank.
I'm so excited for these charities.I'm so excited for the last day
of play. The weather's giving usa run for our money. But you

(00:22):
know what, everyone's happy, we'reall here, We're all safe. Eli's
Garden of Healing is one of thecharities that's going to benefit from bertie for
Charity. I'm here with their cofounders, Kyle Zukowskis and Crystal Cathcart.
Hi you too, Hello, Thanksfor having us. Absolutely, it's a
pleasure to have you here. Firstand foremost. You guys are the co
founders. So tell us about Eli'sand how it started and how you help.

(00:44):
Great. Yeah, So we werefounded in twenty twenty two. My
nephew was walking home from school.He was fifteen, and he was shot
and killed on his way home fromschool, Okay, and we decided to
take that energy and create something good. For the community. So we are
making a healing garden on top ofan old machine gun test firing range,
My God, and creating something reallybeautiful for the people that live in our

(01:04):
community who've been impacted by violence.Where did Eli live? Where was he
walking home from Hamden? He waswalking home from high school. Yeah,
just walking home, just walking homeas kids do. Yeah. I just
think of the changes of everything andeverything that we do. Yeah, it's
heartbreaking. And gun violence is real, and I know there's a whole other

(01:25):
conversation about that. This is nota political program, so we won't even
go there. But the facts andthe statistics are what they are, and
I'm sorry that your family had toexperience that. Thank you. Tell me
about Eli before we go any further. Yeah, So he was great.
He was on the football team.He was a very lively happy kid,
love to help out, love tovolunteer. He was our best friend.

(01:45):
And so tell me about the receptionwithin the family, first of La Ceiling
Garden and then also now the community. Yeah, so it's been really amazing.
It gives my sister, Elijah's momsome hope and some comfort. This
will actually be directly next door toher house. So when it's created,
she'll be able to walk right outsideof her house, have a cup of
tea and be able to have thisamazing resource right outside her doorstep, and

(02:08):
for other people in the community tobenefit from it as well, because whatever
the healing may be that they're hopingto get, they'll they'll benefit from it.
So this is sort of like anincredible opportunity to share healing across all
boards. But unfortunately she and othersknow all too well the meaning of gun
violence. Yeah. Absolutely, andone of our missions is to help people

(02:29):
impacted by any kind of violence.Violence has no boundaries. It impacts people
everywhere, and a lot of peopleare impacted by many different kinds of violence.
So we want to keep this asopen ended as possible in a resource
for as many people. When youthink about the number of people impacted by
violence, it's really everybody in someformer fashion doesn't know zip code, does
not know a zip code, butalthough it is far more prevalent in some

(02:52):
of our cities here in the States, So this is wonderful. How can
we find you directly? Yeah,Eli's Garden of Healing dot Com is our
website. We're on Facebook and sovery active on Instagram and Facebook and we're
on LinkedIn. So when do youhope to I mean, I don't know
if the ground has already been brokenthat area, but when do you hope
to have the project completed? Ithink you might have just said that,
but could you repeat that again.We are hoping to groundbreak next year.

(03:13):
That's our goal. The project's goingto be about two million dollars and so
right now we're applying for state andfederal funding and we're really hoping. Elijah
was in the class of twenty twentyfive. We're hoping that when these high
schoolers leave to go off to college, we can have some sort of a
groundbreaking before they leave. And theseBirdi bucks mean everything everything to us.
Yeah, tell me about the processof being a part of Birdie Sear Charity.

(03:34):
How easy has it been? Howeasy has the Travelers and Webster Bank
made it for y'all? Oh,it's been a snap. They had a
great reception for us a few monthsago, and it's been very welcoming.
The community is it's very welcoming communityof nonprofits and everybody benefits. It's been
really great, not complicated to bea part of right, not complicated and
as a very lean organization, wecan make dollars stretch pretty far. We've

(03:55):
already raised I think around six hundreddollars just in matching funds from Webster Bank,
so right now I think we're aboutsixty five hundred dollars so far those
matching dollars. Come on, Birdies, Come on, players, We need
your birdies by the end of daytoday. We need a billion birdies.
So let's go. Let's go.If you're going to Travelers Championship dot com
scroll through birdies for charity, you'regoing to find ELA's Garden of Healing.

(04:16):
Did I say that right? That'sEli's Garden of Healing. And what a
great organization that will benefit so manypeople, not only in the Hamden and
greater New Haman community, but butbeyond. So thank you both so very
much for being here, and IGod bless your family, and thank you
so much for sharing a little bitof Eli with us today. Thank you
so much, Thanks for having us