Someone Threw the Information Box From Wisconsin Rapids’ Legacy Garden for Organ Donors Into the Wisconsin River in October, the Second Time It Was Vandalized This Year

Someone has now gone after the same small information box at a Wisconsin Rapids memorial garden twice in one season. In July, vandals ripped off its door and bent its metal pole. In early October, the whole box and pole were pulled out and thrown into the Wisconsin River, WSAW reported. The garden honors organ donors, and the group behind it says it will be repaired and put back.

A Monday Call About the Missing Box

The City of Wisconsin Rapids, which owns the park, notified the garden’s caretakers on a Monday morning in early October that the box was gone, according to WSAW. The city retrieved it from the river and power washed it.

The box holds flyers and business cards about organ donation. It has no financial value, said Jill Dillon, a co-founder of Central Wisconsin Gift of Life, but it matters to the group because it is how visitors learn what the garden is for. Dillon told WSAW that the group is at a complete loss as to who would do such a thing.

The October damage came after the July incident, when the door was torn off and the pole bent. The park has no cameras, and Dillon said she is considering filing a police report and may install cameras as a deterrent.

A Basketball Game Behind the Garden

The Legacy Garden sits in Legion Park on First Street North in Wisconsin Rapids. It grew out of a memorial fundraiser, according to the Wisconsin Rapids City Times.

Chris Stensberg, a member of Central Wisconsin Gift of Life and the recipient of a double lung transplant, died in August 2018. His Nekoosa girls basketball team held a game in his honor against Port Edwards High School on Nov. 15, 2018, his birthday. Proceeds from that game and from funeral memorials went to the group, which used them to create the garden.

The group describes the garden’s purpose as bringing awareness to organ and tissue donation through the memories and honoring of organ recipients and others in the transplant community. WSAW reports that pavers along its path carry messages from loved ones, and that the space is meant as a quiet place to reflect and remember.

In an earlier interview quoted by the City Times, Dillon described Stensberg’s medical history this way: “Chris was the recipient of a double lung transplant.” The paper describes Central Wisconsin Gift of Life as a group of transplant recipients, living donors, donor families and others who promote organ and tissue donation awareness in central Wisconsin.

How the Garden Was Dedicated in 2020

Central Wisconsin Gift of Life was founded by Sara Solinsky, Jill Dillon and Kathy Gehrke, and it promotes organ, tissue and eye donation, according to an OnFocus listing for the garden’s dedication event. The 2020 event was set for Saturday, Sept. 12, with a Facebook Live kickoff at 8 a.m. and a 5K that people could complete on their own or in groups.

That evening, visitors were invited to the Legion Park site between 6 and 7 p.m., and the dedication was scheduled for 7 p.m. with special guest Chad Franzen. Luminaries bearing a donor’s name, a recipient’s name, a family name or a message of hope were to line the path and the garden. Registration cost $25 and included a shirt, a Dilly Bar and a raffle ticket, and all proceeds went to Restoring Hope Transplant House in Middleton, Wisconsin.

Where the Money Goes Afterward

Restoring Hope Transplant House is a nonprofit home away from home for transplant families. It is a Victorian house built in the 1890s that offers lodging near UW Hospital and the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison. Eligible guests pay $45 per night per room.

The group’s work did not stop with the dedication. The National Kidney Foundation of Wisconsin lists Central Wisconsin Gift of Life’s annual scavenger hunt, the 12th annual, for Saturday, April 18, 2026, at the Ridges Golf Course and Banquet Facility in Wisconsin Rapids. The group’s own website describes it as a registered charity whose mission is raising awareness for organ and tissue donation throughout central Wisconsin. Restoring Hope’s own blog also recorded a Central Wisconsin Gift of Life scavenger hunt in Wisconsin Rapids on April 23, 2016, with proceeds supporting several causes, Restoring Hope among them.

Repairs and an Ask for Neighbors

The group is deciding whether to repair the box itself or have the city do it, WSAW reported. Dillon said it will be fixed and reattached. Community members have offered to help, including by providing materials for the repair.

Dillon asked residents to report anyone acting suspiciously near the garden to the group or to police. She said the garden’s mission has not changed and that the group wants people to visit and enjoy it.

The group has been putting on events in Wisconsin Rapids since at least 2016, and the garden gave its message a permanent spot in a city park. The box is the part of the garden that hands visitors something to take home, and Dillon has said it will be back in place.

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

Image: Wikideas1 – CC0/Wikimedia Commons