The Garden of Angels

The Garden began in August of 1996 with 3 children. The first infant was a newborn boy who had been found in a duffel bag along the San Pedro freeway in southern California. Within three weeks, 2 more babies were found—a newborn boy strangled to death and found in a dumpster, and a 2-year old girl who had washed up on a Malibu beach.

In California, if no one comes forward to claim an unidentified corpse at the coroner’s after a 30-day investigation, the body is cremated, stored in a box for 3 years with other John and Jane Does, and then dumped into a communal grave.

These abandoned little ones were given a name instead of an identification number and a voice instead of the silence that their parent or parents had intended for them. Each child who comes to the Garden is given this same gift of love. These children speak loudly about the value of human life. They also offer a testimony of love about caring for one another. As of January 2007 there are 80 little graves at the Garden of Angels.

An annual memorial service is held each August to honor and remember all of the children interred in the Garden of Angels.

We honor the children in the Garden, but it is our greatest hope and goal to never bury another “throwaway” child again. That is why we have developed the Safe Arms for Newborns public awareness and educational campaign. We are reaching out to youth and young adults with the tragic story of newborn abandonment, and the preventative alternatives that are now available with the passage of California’s “Safe Haven” law.

FUNDS ARE NEEDED TO:

Print and distribute more posters, bumper stickers and educational brochures.

Produce more videos for schools.

Purchase advertising space or time in newspapers, magazines and on the radio.