By SHELBY BILBRUCK
Reporter
(WARRENSBURG, Mo., digitalBURG) — “She had just graduated from high school and was accepted into UCM when she was killed,” said Ramona Conant, “Two weeks after her high school graduation. Two days before my birthday.”
Seventeen years ago, Ramona lost her daughter Angel in a collision with a drunk driver. She and her husband Craig quickly became involved with other families experiencing similar losses and, through that involvement, an “idea to have a common place that children could be remembered and memorialized in a cheerful setting was created.” This is how the Children’s Memorial Garden was born and, years later, the idea for the annual Purse Palooza to help fund the garden came to be.
The committee is preparing for its biggest fundraiser, Purse Palooza, which takes place at 6 p.m. Thursday at the American Legion in Warrensburg. The basement they’ve met in is lined wall to wall with tubs and garbage bags of purses. The six committee members at the meeting stand gathered around a table, sorting purses into the sale, silent auction, live auction and queen purse categories.
“After (Angel) passed away, one of the things they did was try to decide what they could do in memory of her, but there are lots of kids, you know, that, no matter what age they are, they pass away,” said Stormy Taylor, Children’s Memorial Garden committee member, as she set down the purses she was organizing as part of the fundraiser. Taylor stared at the floor before taking a deep breath. “So they made a committee at that time, and I was part of that, and there were a lot of people who had lost children that thought, ‘What can we do to have a place to go back and reflect on that?’”
The Conants put all their efforts into having a regular auction, a motorcycle rally and a poker run, along with other fundraisers, to raise enough money to develop the memorial gardens. In 1999, their vision for the gardens became a reality, and it found a home in the Nancy Anderson Park at the corner of Main and Colburn streets. Today, the gardens have become both a scenic view and a place for parents and community members to come to remember those “we have lost too soon,” according to their brochure.
A concrete path weaves throughout 11 “beautiful bronze statues” of children playing, and the main feature, a granite wall, is inscribed with the names of children who have died. The statues are chosen by committee members like Alyssa Tucker who said the committee usually chooses the statues based on which ones elicit the most feelings.
“The (statue of the) child with the balloon, for me, that’s a personal attachment because that’s a ceremony that me and my family and my daughter, we do every year for my son,” Tucker said. “We write little messages in the balloon, and we send it up to him up in heaven. It’s a really special meaning for a lot of families that have lost kids because many of them do it quite a bit.”
What evokes the most feelings in the park, however, is not the statues but the memorial wall. Three towering slabs of granite stand in the middle of the garden, with three benches in front of them for a sitting area. The middle slab has an engraved figure of an angel with the name of the garden and “In memory of those we’ve lost too soon” below it. The two adjacent slabs are inscribed with the names of 153 children. Angel’s name is etched at the very top.
“The main reason we raise money is to add more sculptures to the park, and we let anyone who’s lost a child let their name be engraved on the wall at no cost to them,” Craig said. “It costs us about $75 a name, and we engrave the names once a year in October.”
Ramona said the committee doesn’t want anyone who’s lost a child to have to come up with that $75.
“So that’s why we fundraise,” Ramona said, grasping her husband’s hand for a brief second and smiling before continuing to sort purses, “That’s the reason right there.”
Taylor said there are, unfortunately, a lot of names that get added each year, and the fundraiser allows them to pay for engravings.
When Ramona originally wanted to start fundraising, she said she didn’t want to go business to business and ask for money. But inspiration struck when she was helping her mother-in-law, Cherry Conant, leave for New Mexico three years ago.
“Cherry carried tubs of purses to her car because she changes out her purses,” she said. “I started to wonder how I could turn that into a fundraiser.”
She shared her thoughts with Taylor and they came up with the idea to have a garage sale of purses during the spring when many people clean out their closets. They held the event at Players Restaurant and Lounge the first year, but quickly realized the space was too small and upgraded to the Warrensburg Elk’s Lodge for the following years. This year’s crowd is expected to climb above the usual 150 to nearly 200 people, so they’ve moved the event to the American Legion to get the room they need.
Hundreds of purses are donated or bought for the event every year. Designer purses such as Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Guess and Michael Kors are donated and sold in the live auction, while purses in good shape are put in the silent auction and the “slightly loved” ones are put in the garage sale section. There’s also a themed purse section and a Queen Purse competition, which is where companies can stuff purses with prizes and guests vote on the winner.
“The purse that’s sold for the most was a Louis Vuitton valued at $1,400 that sold for $750,” Craig said.
Purse Palooza has raised more than $10,000 a year for the past three years, which the committee puts in an account for repairs and name engravings.
“I’m elated my idea grew into all of this,” Ramona said excitedly, her eyes bright with joy. “I thought I was just going to have a little garage sale, but look at it now!”