Kelli Joy Peace Garden Dedicated at Highlands

Long live the walls we crashed through/all the kingdom lights shined just for me and you/I was screaming, long live all the magic we made/And bring on all the pretenders, one day we will be remembered...

So sang the Highlands Middle School show choir on Wednesday, performing Taylor Swift’s “Long Live” as they dedicated a new “peace garden” in front of the school memorializing Kelli Joy O’Laughlin, a 2011 Highlands graduate who was in October.

The garden consists of a granite bench, a Jane magnolia tree and a stone with a plaque bearing Kelli’s name. On Wednesday, the tree was decorated in ribbons bearing the names of the Highlands Middle School Class of 2011—so Kelli could be “surrounded by her classmates.”

Inside the Highlands gymnasium, the choir also sang “Kelli’s Song,” teachers read a memorial poem and students broadcast a slide show of images from Kelli’s life.

“Highlands is the place where Kelli grew the most,” said her friend and fellow Class of 2011 grad Kelsey Corcoran, addressing a large assembly. “She really made her mark on Highlands, and Highlands made its mark on her. Now we have a permanent reminder of the mark that she made and the light that she left: this beautiful peace garden.”

Eighth grader Maddy Kirklys read a poem asking, “what is joy?” (or perhaps “Joy:”) “Could it be the laughter that echoes through our halls, or the never-ceasing sobs of your classmates as wax drips down you candles for the loss of a life? … It can be a nightmare, or a celebration of a short life well-lived. It is Kelli.”

Outside, students and attendees gathered around the peace garden and released a flock of balloons into the sky, then took photos with the ribbon-dressed tree. Members of the Class of 2011 posed for photos with the physical memory of their lost friend.

“We love this idea of a peace garden, a place where students and even teachers and parents can come and sit under a bench, stand under a tree, look at a plant and think about Kelli Joy and the ideals that she stood for,” said Kelli’s mother Brenda.

“We’re so grateful to know that while Kelli will always be remembered at Highlands because of the lives she touched and the kind of person she was, there is something permanent here in her name that really does reflect Kelli’s spirit.”

And when many students remained in and around the peace garden after the ceremony, despite the somber dedication, most were resolutely cheerful as they remembered Kelli in a green garden under a blue sky.

Joy is back at Highlands to stay.