Letter: Purple Heart garden has champions
The original Purple Heart garden at Wye Park found some new champions this year.
After vandals pulled out most of the native purple sage in the garden’s heart, Beaver Bark and anonymous donors donated and planted lovely purple blooming salvias and verbenas just before Memorial Day. While beautiful, these beautiful plants needed to be watered. Volunteers carried buckets of water from the Yakima River almost daily until our next champion stepped forward. Howard Ruiz and his dog Binky figured out a way to keep the purple heart alive all through the heat of summer by watering from a tank in his truck.
Many thanks to Howard Ruiz and Beaver Bark. You warmed the hearts of veterans as well as us.
Ernie Crediford and Mickie Chamness, Richland
This story was originally published October 16, 2016 at 4:04 AM with the headline "Letter: Purple Heart garden has champions."