Vandals Destroyed Two Benches Families Placed for Their Children at Lawton’s Children’s Memorial Garden, Then Spray-Painted Four More

“These names all have children’s names on them, from the families who have dedicated these benches,” said Annette Wiseman-Vaughan, a steering committee member with The Compassionate Friends, speaking about the Children’s Memorial Garden in Lawton’s Elmer Thomas Park. Vandals destroyed two memorial benches there last week and spray-painted four more this week, KSWO reported. Crime Stoppers of Southwest Oklahoma is asking anyone with information to come forward.

A Quiet Corner of Elmer Thomas Park Built for Remembering

The Children’s Memorial Garden sits inside Elmer Thomas Park, the park at 501 NW Ferris Ave., where the city lists parking, a picnic area and restrooms. The garden is something different from the play equipment around it: a quiet space meant to remember and honor children who are no longer living.

The Compassionate Friends helps support the garden, according to KSWO. The report does not say who founded it or when it opened. Each memorial bench was placed by a grieving family and dedicated to a child who died.

The names on the benches are those of children, Wiseman-Vaughan told the station, and the families who dedicated the benches chose them. She said the garden is “not just a playground with playground equipment” and called it meaningful to the group. For the people who placed them, a bench is not park furniture. It is a place where a name can be seen and where a family can sit.

The Compassionate Friends is a nonprofit that offers support to families after a child dies, whatever the child’s age or the cause of death, according to the organization’s national site. It reports more than 500 chapters across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The Lawton chapter has a history in the park: a local radio station covered a chapter fundraising walk at Elmer Thomas Park in 2015, describing the group as a nonprofit supporting parents who have lost a child, adult or juvenile.

Two Benches Destroyed, Four Spray-Painted

KSWO reporter Kyle Weatherly covered the story for the Lawton station, which aired and posted it Nov. 12.

KSWO gives the sequence in relative terms. Two memorial benches were destroyed last week. This week, four more benches were covered in graffiti. The station’s story was published Nov. 12, and it does not give calendar dates for either incident.

The graffiti has since been cleaned off, KSWO reported. The destroyed benches are a different matter. They were placed by families, and the report does not say whether or how they will be replaced.

People connected to the memorial told KSWO that the emotional damage remains even after the paint came off. Wiseman-Vaughan said the group wants the memories preserved where families chose to place them, and in a nice way.

She also said the group would welcome a formal response. If legal or police action can help end the vandalism, she said, the group wants that to happen. “Because it just needs to stop,” she said.

KSWO’s report does not name a suspect, describe how the benches were destroyed or say whether Lawton police have opened a case.

Her comments to KSWO make clear that the group is asking for more than repairs.

Lawton is not the only place where a garden meant for remembrance has been damaged. Lovely Garden Roots has also reported on vandals damaging the memorial garden at Hereford County Hospital and on the second vandalism of the Legacy Garden for organ donors in Wisconsin Rapids this year.

How to Help: Crime Stoppers Tips and Chapter Support

Anyone who saw something in or around Elmer Thomas Park, or who knows who was responsible, can contact Crime Stoppers of Southwest Oklahoma at (580) 355-INFO or through the program’s website. According to Crime Stoppers of Southwest Oklahoma, tips can be sent through an online form or by phone at 1-580-355-4636, and the tips are encrypted to protect the sender’s anonymity. Officers review each tip, and a tipster may receive a reward if it leads to results. KSWO reported that tips can be anonymous. KSWO adds that information leading to an arrest may qualify for a cash reward.

The Compassionate Friends has a chapter locator on its national site, where visitors can select a state and enter a ZIP code to find the nearest chapter. The organization serves bereaved families and also people who want to support them. Families who placed benches at the Lawton garden, and anyone else who has lost a child, can use it to find a local group.

The national site also points to online support, including online communities and private Facebook groups, for people who cannot get to a meeting. It lists a main phone number of 877-969-0010. Later this year, on Dec. 13, the organization holds its 30th annual Worldwide Candle Lighting, a remembrance event for children who have died.

That date falls about a month after the vandalism. For families with a bench in the garden, the garden is one place where a child’s name is displayed in a public park.

The details that matter for a tip are the ones KSWO has already laid out. Two benches were destroyed in the week before the station’s Nov. 12 report, and four were spray-painted in the same week as the report. Anyone who noticed people, vehicles or activity near the garden during either stretch can pass that along to Crime Stoppers without giving a name.

For neighbors and park visitors, the request is simple. The benches carry the names of children, and families placed them there. Wiseman-Vaughan said her group wants the memories kept where families put them, and the vandalism to stop. Tips about either incident, the destroyed benches or the graffiti, are what Crime Stoppers is asking for, and the contact details in KSWO’s report are the same ones listed above.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Acabashi – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons