What do you know about Cañada del Oro Christina-Taylor Green Memorial River Park?

History- Gabrielle Giffords was an Arizona congresswoman born June 8th 1970. Giffords spent a single term in the Arizona state house and then won election to the state senate in 2002 with more than 74 percent of the vote—becoming the youngest woman ever elected to that chamber. She won re-election in 2004 and in 2005 the Aspen Institute made her part of its inaugural class of Aspen-Rodel fellows, a leadership program for elected officials under the age of 50. Giffords believed that if she was to serve her district was by giving 100% to the people. One way she wanted to accomplish this was through her “Congress on Your Corner” events. These events were held in public spaces easily accessible to community members wanting and able to attend. As reported on the history.house.gov site, “On January 8, 2011, three days into the 112th Congress (2011–2013), Giffords was holding a “Congress on Your Corner” event outside a Tucson grocery store. During the meet-and-greet with constituents, a gunman shot Giffords in the head and killed six others, including a federal judge and one of Giffords’s aides”.²

Another victim of the January 8th attack was 9 year old Christina-Taylor Green. Green was born September 11, 2011 and was one of 50 babies featured in a book called faces of hope.⁵ She had an older brother named Dallas and was at the time the only girl on her Canyon Del Oro little league team. Her grandfather, former major-league pitcher Dallas Green, was team manager for the Philadelphia Phillies when they won the World Series in 1980. Christina-Taylor also enjoyed singing in a church choir at St. Odilia's Catholic Church, where she had received her first Holy Communion in the spring. Christina attended Mesa Verde Elementary school and had an interest in politics so her neighbor took her to the Safeway on Ina and Oracle in Tucson to meet Giffords, but never got the chance.

A beautiful butterfly garden park was created in remembrance of her.

The Christina-Taylor Green Park, dedicated in April 2017, is a two-acre parcel, on the southwest corner of North Shannon and West Magee roads, close to the Green's home and where Christina-Taylor and her brother used to play. The Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Park Fund was created by her family in honor of Christina-Taylor to establish a memorial park where families and children can enjoy and discover the beauty of desert gardens in an open space which celebrates the spirit of a young girl and her love for butterflies. Park improvements include a shaded, central seating plaza; a bronze statue surrounded by a butterfly garden; botanical trails; several benches to provide respite for Loop users and a butterfly sculpture atop a vertical monument. This park project was made possible by the very generous support of the community.⁷ The park was beautified, in a private-public partnership between Pima County, the Green family and the business community, with benches and picnic tables, a butterfly garden, botanical trails and a statue of two children playing. There is no admission fee for this park. There are no advertisements pushing a product on you. It ask for nothing except that it's visitors are respectful of the landscape and reminder to be kind.

Importance to the Local Community- “After the shooting, there was a renewed discussion on public health and the intersection between physical and mental health. Being outdoors and with others helps people with depression and anxiety”.⁸ The family of Gabe Zimmerman, Giffords' 30-year-old director of community outreach who was killed at the Jan. 8 shooting, joined together with a broad-based coalition of healthcare providers, public land managers and nonprofits, to start Beyond on the one-year anniversary of the tragedy. Beyond is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of our community, through the use of good science and rational analysis. The stakeholders got together to strategize expanding Beyond into year-round programing, and what came out of that was the Beyond Rx Health Formula: explore in nature, pick an activity you like and move your body, nourish with healthy food and connect with the community. The year-round Beyond Challenge incentivizes and encourages ways to use the Health Formula. People can sign up and participate in suggested activities. Participants collect stamps at the activities and are eligible to win prizes. They also get discounts at participating local stores. Beyond Tucson is about getting beyond the tragedy.⁸

About a month before she died, 9-year-old Christina-Taylor drew a picture of a green/ blue butterfly during a school art class, with stripes, big dark eyes and large, open wings that point to the sky.

Her mother, Roxanna Green, did not see the artwork until after her daughter was killed.⁹

The Christina-Taylor Green Memorial River Park is also playing a role in reversing the loss of monarch butterflies. The migration route for the bright orange and black butterflies has been harmed by loss of habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated in 2014 that since 1990, nearly 1 billion monarchs had disappeared. Now, a “monarch way station” is part of the public-private Christina-Taylor Green Memorial River Park on the Tucson area’s northwest side, which held its official opening Feb 2021 with Pima County officials following a year of fundraising by the Green family. The way stations are designed with plants, primarily milkweed and nectar plants, placed to attract monarch butterflies along their migration route, explained Sergio Avila, a conservation research scientist with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which donated 110 plants to the Christina-Taylor Green Park. The Southwest Monarch Study, along with Tohono Chul Park, planted a monarch way station at the Safeway shopping center where the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting occurred. Larvae were spotted on the milkweeds for the first time in spring of 2021.⁹

Perhaps just as important as these are to the community, so is the act of remembering and reflecting. Simultaneously a strength and vulnerability of humans is that time will help us heal and forget. Sometimes it’s important to remember and that is what this butterfly garden park allows the community to do.