Spending time with family gives you the chance of creating blissful moments that you’ll cherish. But for the Cathcart family, that joy was shattered.
On May 9, 2022, 15-year-old Elijah “Eli” Gomez walked home from school through the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail – a 84-mile trail that stretches from Northampton, Mass. to New Haven.
At approximately 2:30 p.m., Gomez was shot from behind multiple times by an unidentified man, along with two unidentified individuals by the man’s side. Hamden police responded to the scene and Gomez was pronounced dead after suffering multiple wounds, according to WFSB.
For the Cathcart family, their question remains: why would this happen?
The family is left brokenhearted as they lost a nature-spirited and kind-hearted son, brother and nephew.
Gomez’s mother, Jennifer Cathcart, says Eli’s death “broke her family,” no longer celebrating holidays or putting flowers on his tombstone.
At school, Gomez was a part of Hamden High School’s freshman football team. He had a “great personality and was easy to get along with,” said Tom Dyer, athletic director and head varsity football coach.
“He was a kid that was full of life,” Dyer said. “He had his best years ahead of him, for sure.”
Cathcart left her sister, Crystal Zukauskas (Cathcart), in charge of picking up his urn from the funeral home.
She took his urn to Long Wharf Preserve – a place of comfort and remembrance. Gomez used to help clean up the preserve with Zukauskas and the preserve’s committee. While walking on the beach, Zukauskas asked herself: “Why did [Eli’s death] happen? Give me a sign.”
Within minutes, a No. 2 pencil washed up on shore by her feet. Zukauskas then remembered a story Gomez’s teacher mentioned in his eulogy. He would run out of pencils because he would give them to another student in need. The No. 2 pencil illustrated who Gomez was.
As Zukauskas was about to leave the beach, she passed hearts drawn in the sand.
She realized how the pencil and hearts were a sign of Gomez and felt like she needed to do “something good with the energy,” she said.
After speaking with her husband, Kyle, they thought about creating a nonprofit organization surrounding healing and nature.
While seeking inspiration, Zukauskas stumbled upon the New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence – a memorial sponsored by the Yale’s School of the Environment. She made her way to a stone walkway that is each dedicated to a person killed by guns in New Haven.
“It happens in big cities, [it] happens everywhere,” Zukauskas said. “There’s sexual assault, bullying, self harm, suicide, [and] gun violence. There’s so many different ways that we’re impacted by violence.”
When Zukauskas reached out to add Gomez’s stone, she received no response.
“I realized in going [to the memorial garden] it’s 10 minutes down the road from where Elijah lived, but he’s excluded from that,” Zukauskas said. “And there’s a lot of other people that probably feel the same way. We need to cast a wider net on the problem, right?”
She decided to take initiative in creating her own healing garden, Elijah’s Garden of Healing (EGH), on June 16, 2022.
The volunteer-run organization is focused on building a healing garden at the John P. Denicola Park in Hamden. Buried in the woods is a 50-year abandoned gun test firing range owned by manufacturer Winchester Repeating Arms Company that will be restructured into the garden.
The 1.7-acre tunnel-like structure will feature a wide variety of options – including a trail of plants, trees, an accessible ramp and overall provide a social and engaging space for all.
“We want to let either people come with feelings of hope and inspiration and energy or sadness contemplation,” Zukauskas said. “We want to design it in a way that it can serve groups or a single person. Happy energy or sad energy. And kind of let the person bring to it what they want to experience, not necessarily like the gun violence.”
In order to get funding, the organization applied for $1.7 million through Connecticut’s 2025 Congressionally Directed Spending – a funding request for Connecticut-based projects seeking assistance from the federal government.
Although it passed the second round, it did not advance to the final round.
“It was so close we could taste it,” Zukauskas said.
However, Zukauskas says that being a multifaceted organization does hurt them as some grant-funding organizations reject them.
Zukauskas wanted to have the garden completed by 2025 – a personal goal of hers as it would have been Gomez’s graduation year. However, she doesn’t mind hosting events and programs to raise money, and bond with the community. Events range from art, nature and wellness that spread awareness about all types of violence.
On Nov. 9, EGH hosted its first “Makers Market,” a fundraiser showcasing local artists while enjoying food and drinks from local Hamden businesses and live music. Attendees also got to know more about EGH’s cause, purchase merchandise and enter raffles and giveaways.
“I just saw the amount of volunteers who just came out of the woodworks to help,” said Marcia Thomas, secretary of EGH. “[And] just seeing the community support, all these people show up …we’re doing something right.”
Thomas, whose son knew Gomez, joined EGH after volunteering and donating to the organization.
“The work that this organization is doing has so much potential for impact, and it touches, really, anyone,” Thomas said. “I think sometimes people think it’s just around gun violence, but it’s not.”
In addition to the fundraiser, EGH looks for petitions of support in order to show how much the community benefits from the initiative. Those efforts could be a key in receiving grants.
“Our hope is that we’ll do many more of these in the future. It’s great to get [the] community together for a purpose,” said Kyle Zukauskas, the co-founder and treasurer of EGH. “I’m really proud of the work that was done. I’m so happy that community members came out to support [us].”
At the end of the day, EGH raised more than $4,000 and received 121 petition signatures. For EGH, this is just the beginning.
“I don’t know if [Crystal] really imagined it to be where it’s at now, ” Cathcart said. “… I don’t think she really realized it was gonna go that far. I’m very proud of her and Kyle for thinking about it. This is their therapy for his passing and this does bring us together.”
On Oct. 25, Hamden High honored Gomez at their football team’s ‘Senior Night,’ bringing the Cathcart family together to walk with graduating players down the field in remembrance of Gomez.
This emotional moment not only raised awareness to EGH’s cause but reminded the community how one is never forgotten.
“We’ve had a sticker on our helmet all year – ‘EG’ – in memory of Eli and I think it’s important to his [family] to know that we’re still there, we’re still thinking about him and that we miss him dearly,” Dyer said.
To sign EGH’s petition and donate for support, visit their website:
One reply on “Fighting for a cause – Elijah’s Garden of Healing”
Elijah was an incredible young man with a bright future ahead of him. His life was cut short due to gun violence. The garden will help bring much needed awareness and healing to the community.