A Conservation Area & a Wind Phone

I read about an initiative called the "Wind Phone" at the Sidney Conservation Area near Stirling a couple of days ago so we decided to check it out this morning.  This is a small CA but a place we visit several times a year because of its tranquility. During the pandemic it was a good spot to walk without encountering a lot of other people.

We took time in the silence at this woodland altar and while I didn't phone anyone I held before the Creator several people who are grieving in different ways at the moment, including one who is living with Alzheimer's. Grief takes many forms and it was a comfort to me to be able to do this in such a setting. 

           Dedication of the Wind Phone at Sidney CA, made possible by a grant from the Alva Foundation

Here is a portion of the article from the Belleville Intelligencer about the Acorn Alley trail and the Wind Phone:

In a first for Quinte Conservation, the Sidney property now also has a wind phone. It’s a disconnected 1980s touch-tone telephone in a wooden cabinet affixed to a tall remnant of a fallen tree.

Wind phones are typically placed in peaceful, private natural settings as a way to help people grieve the loss of loved ones. Visitors can express their grief by using the phone as a way of speaking “into the wind” and telling whatever they wish they could tell those they have lost.

Quinte Conservation’s communications specialist, Kirsten Geisler, suggested the idea after being inspired by a similar project in the Niagara region. Frankford volunteer Barnaba Szluinski constructed the phone cabinet and the wood-shingled roof above it.

 “We wanted to support people who are grieving in untraditional ways,” Geisler said Thursday at the site’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. It was part of a larger grand opening of a new trail and other upgrades in the conservation area.

“We know that nature heals,” she said, and the upgrades offered the “perfect opportunity” for the wind phone pilot project.