Aliçia needs your help to see her dream garden blossom at Bloom?

Navan school girl, Aliçia Kavanagh's dream is soon to be realised when her unique garden design is shown at this year's Bloom festival. The garden ‘Rainbow’s End’ depicts the seven stages of grief as viewed by children, in the form of seven different planting stages, using the colours of the rainbow. This thought-provoking theme has been four years in the making and having honed the design over the past few months since being accepted by Bloom Organisers, the offsite garden build is already well underway.

Now, Aliçia needs the financial support of the wider Meath community to finish the project and complete the move to Dublin in time for the June Bank Holiday Weekend festival held in the Phoenix Park, Dublin.

“We’ve been attending Bloom since Aliçia was just three years old. The Phoenix Park was my back garden growing up, so it’s incredible my daughter, Aliçia, will exhibit there this year and proudly represent the county she is from, in doing so. We love the festival, it has everything the makes a great day out and marks the beginning of summer for us”, says Aliçia’s proud mum, Sinead. “Aliçia’s dream of exhibiting at Bloom is now my reality to make happen - that means money. The planting costs are an obvious expense when it comes to exhibiting but many other costs are not so obvious and perhaps not so apparent to people. It’s these mounting costs, such as transport, which we have need to fundraise for.”

“We have a FundIt.ie campaign running at present which will end on May 11th. The target is €2,000 and it will be met by pledges. Only when the target is fully reached, will those pledges be realised as cash, which can be used to cover costs. Miss the target and the project will receive no funds at all from the FundIt campaign. So right now, the push is on to share the story, the project, its concept and its need which is pledges. There is a rewards system with this type of crowd funding and all the details are available on the page. If there are any philanthropic businesses or individuals reading, we would really like to engage their support,” a determined Sinead has explained to us.

“We have already been very lucky to receive the support of Louth Meath Education Training Board, Boyne Garden Sheds, Landscape Solutions, Wesco Electrical, Trimfold Envelopes Ltd., Common’s Hardware, Aldi Navan, Crystal Café and Tapas Restaurant and Johnstone’s Decorating Centre, who have all whole-heartedly lent their support and enthusiasm to Aliçia, for which we are very grateful. They have been so engaged with her vision, it has given her great encouragement. The 1st year Art students at Beaufort College, where Aliçia will attend in September 2018 for secondary school, are in the process of painting the mural backdrop to the garden, with the help of their art teacher, local Trim artist, Jacqueline Keane. What we really need now is funding to cover the small and not so small, sundry costs which we are meeting along the way. That is why the FundIt campaign is so important and we have only days left to reach the target. Time is against us!”

Entitled, 'Rainbow's End', Aliçia's unique design depicts a top down view of a garden which has seven different planting stages placed throughout. Each stage represents the seven different colours of the rainbow which in turn, hold a deeper significance - grief and how children process it.

Aliçia (above) believes children see the world in a different light than adults and demonstrates this with her planting. Aliçia's first experience with loss was when her kitten passed away, but she went through a more profound journey when she lost her Nana Aileen shortly afterwards. With the help of her mum, Sinead, Aliçia was able to process her grief but more importantly talk about it.

Through her garden Aliçia wants to demonstrate not only the unique worldview of children but also to get children speaking about grief with their parents, as she believes this can only be a positive experience.

“Aliçia asked me what happens to animals when they die”, says Sinead as she tells the story of how the name, 'Rainbows End', came about. “I told her that they cross Rainbow Bridge and as children do, she asked me, 'to where?' and that is how the name was born.

“'Rainbows End', depicts a child's journey through grief and how children have a different perception of the world than adults. Through this garden, grief is a rainbow with many different spectrums and although there is an end, it can sometimes be hard to visualise.”

Sinead says that Aliçia has always been, 'socially aware' and shown wisdom belying her age.

This is demonstrated by a survey which Aliçia carried out. “We carried out an online survey where we asked adults to pick a colour they would associate with grief using the colours of the rainbow, as well as black, white and brown. The adults chose predominately dark colours. We also sent the survey to children who were the opposite and chose brighter colours.”

Aliçia's vision is coming together due to the generosity of LMETB who have been hosting ‘Rainbow’s End’ HQ on Abbey Road and the garden will have a forever home and longevity when Aliçia donates the entire garden to Meath Springboard Family Support Services for

inclusion in the garden of their new purpose-built premises, Mangan House at Windtown. Aliçia hopes to start a discussion about children's emotions both negative and positive, as well as raising awareness for the Meath Springboard Family Support Services, who offer support to children and their family's who are dealing with life challenges.

Boyne Garden Sheds have also helped bring the garden to life through the donation of a pressure-treated cabin shed as well as contributing a bespoke garden piece, which will be on

The design has been four years in the making and Aliçia will finally be able to showcase her piece at Bloom by Bord Bia over the June Bank Holiday Weekend, May 31st to June 4th.

It has been a long and rewarding journey but as Sinead says, “when a child has a dream it’s our job as parents, to do everything we can to help them, make it happen.”

For those who wish to get behind Aliçia’s road to Bloom they can do so financially via the Fund It campaign by clicking here and through support and encouragement by interacting via Facebook www.facebook.com/rainbowsendnavan Twitter at @RainbowsEndASK and Instagram #rainbowsendatbloom