Seven years after a tornado tore through the southwest Ottawa neighbourhood of Arlington Woods, the community has cut the ribbon on a new memorial — one made from trees harvested from the storm’s aftermath.
On Saturday, Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine was joined by about 50 attendees and other dignitaries to unveil the new $500,000 Trend Arlington Community Pavilion.
The Sept. 21, 2018 tornado — one of six to blow through the region that day — saw winds approaching 265 km/h. It tore many of Arlington Woods’ towering white pines from the ground, snapping them in two and sending some crashing into homes.
The city and the Trend-Arlington Community Association saved many of the downed trees, in the hopes a memorial or some other project could be built.
In 2019, Devine, who was then the president of the community association, said he wanted the felled trees to become “a tangible symbolic representation of what we lost.” He helped raise nearly $200,000 in funding from the provincial and federal governments for the project.
Dozens of dignitaries came out Saturday evening for the unveiling of the new pavilion. (Nathan Fung/CBC)’Our neighbourhood was transformed’
The new pavilion includes a public art installation called ReWilding, designed by artist Jennifer Kelly. It consists of 18 butterflies suspended from the rafters, with their wings painted green, purple, blue, and yellow.
Devine said the butterflies serve as a symbol of regrowth and transformation.
“Quite literally, our neighbourhood was transformed by this tornado. But also we, as a community, had a whole lot of regrowth in the weeks and months after the tornado,” he said Saturday.
“All of that rebirth of our community kind of ends up being exemplified by these butterflies here — and certainly by this pavilion.”
As a surprise, Devine hired the Ottawa Caledonian Pipes and Drums bagpipe band to perform at the ribbon cutting, the same band he hired to lift people’s spirits a month after the tornado.
WATCH | Tornado victims talk about the devastating 2018 storm
Tornado victims share what’s left of their homes with CBC
Tornado victims in the Ottawa neighbourhood of Arlington Woods shared what’s left of their homes and belongings with CBC News.
Patrick Fiori, the current president of the Trend-Arlington Community Association, said he was one of the lucky ones back in 2018.
While Fiori wasn’t directly hit by the tornado, he said he had friends who lost cars or houses.
“It was really devastating to see … I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” he recalled Saturday.
The new pavilion, he said, represents the neighbourhood’s community spirit, from making sure the downed trees were reused to banding together to get the structure built.
“All of this belongs to everybody in the community,” he said. “To have this structure built, it’s really a symbol of the community to me.”
The ceiling of the pavilion is adorned with 18 butterflies, which Devine says symbolizes how the community was reborn after the storm. (Nathan Fung/CBC)
Also at the ribbon-cutting was Keith Egli, who was city councillor for the area when the storm hit and helped store the wood until the plans were finalized.
“This is the fruition of that plan and it’s just lovely,” he said.
“It really symbolizes how the community came together and supported each other, and this will remind everybody of that.”
Former Ottawa city councillor Keith Egli was in office when the storm hit in 2018. He says the pavilion symbolizes ‘how the community came together’ in the tornado’s aftermath. (Nathan Fung/CBC)