The Rainbow Bridge Pet Memorial on the Alliance campus in Fort Myers was unveiled Saturday. The brainchild on longtime dog lover Gabrielle Bolen, the bridge deck features a rainbow mix of colors. Taunt wire rails encompass the bridge on all four sides. Visitors may walk around the bridge, but not over it. While not open to foot traffic, pet lovers are invited to hang collars or dog tags along the wire. <\/p>\n
CASEY BRADLEY GENT<\/p>\n
Those who have lost a pet now have a place for reflection and remembrance.<\/p>\n
The Alliance for the Arts and project visionary Gabrielle Bolen unveiled the Rainbow Bridge Pet Memorial on the Alliance campus in Fort Myers Saturday. <\/p>\n
Community members brought their pets as well as collars from beloved pets who have passed, to commemorate the event. <\/p>\n
Bolen, a lifelong dog lover, said it took 18 months \u2013 and community-wide collaboration \u2014 to bring her vision of a physical rainbow bridge to a reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cA year and a half ago, I had this idea of creating a space to help our pets\u2019 legacies to live on,\u201d Bolen said. \u201cI had no builder, no landscaper, I didn\u2019t even know how to go about permitting.\u201d <\/p>\n
After the Alliance for the Arts \u2014 a 10-acre campus with accessible walkways, open air pavilions and both permanent and temporary sculpture installations \u2014\u00a0agreed to offer Boles\u2019 Rainbow Bridge a physical place in the Arts Park, the passion project gained widespread community support. <\/p>\n
It also drew community donations.<\/p>\n
Businesses that contributed to the project include Shoreline Lumber, The Structure Pros, Inc., APEX Companies, LLC, Shoreline Property Company, Mike Stewart, P.E., Driftwood Gardens, FAST SIGNS Naples, iBuild Design & Remodel, and TriCircle Landscape Supply.<\/p>\n
Ryan Kraft, co-owner of The Structure Pros, Inc., said he was honored to help build the Rainbow Bridge. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have pets I love. I certainly know how important they are in my life,\u201d Kraft said. <\/p>\n
The rainbow bridge has a glossy base, hand-painted by Boles and her husband in the wee hours of the night before Saturday\u2019s unveiling. <\/p>\n
The floor of the bridge is a rainbow mix of bright orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Taunt wire rails encompass the bridge on all four sides. Visitors may walk around the bridge, but not over it. While not open to foot traffic, pet lovers are invited to hang collars or dog tags along the wire. <\/p>\n
By the end of Saturday morning\u2019s public celebration, nearly a dozen collars had been placed along the rail of the Rainbow Bridge Pet Memorial.<\/p>\n
Among the collars were those that belonged to \u201cHavana\u201d and \u201cBoo Boo.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis bridge gives my babies a place to rest,\u201d said attendee Ayla, who asked that her last name not be included.<\/p>\n
Tricia Montgomery is an ambassador for the Association of Pet Loss and Bereavement and a team member at the Gulf Coast Humane Society. She addressed Saturday\u2019s gathering. <\/p>\n
\u201cGabrielle (Boles),\u201d Montgomery began, \u201cYou are an angel. It\u2019s so important for people to have some place to go and grieve.\u201d <\/p>\n
Attendee Jamie Mommerelli agreed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI lost my boy, Hunter, three years ago. Having a space like this means he had a place to go on,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The Rainbow Bridge Memorial was inspired by the poem Rainbow Bridge. In part, the poem states, \u201cWhen an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so that can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boles smiled as she looked upon the crowd gathered for the unveiling. \u201cIt\u2019s just good to be part of something where I could contribute in such a meaningful way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rainbow Bridge Pet Memorial in Artspark is now available for pet lovers to simply sit in peace, reflect and remember a former beloved pet who was part of the family. <\/p>\n
The Alliance for the Arts is at 10091 McGregor Blvd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rainbow Bridge Pet Memorial on the Alliance campus in Fort Myers was unveiled Saturday. The brainchild on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-407920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}