In the News!

December 2024 - The Board of the Wharton Memorial Foundation wishes to publicly thank the Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation for their recent grant of $3,500. This has been used with great excitement to add the “Pegasus” to our offering of high quality, outdoor musical instruments in the Gathering Terrace section of the Melody Garden. All of the instruments are percussion – drums, marimbas and chimes – with pleasant tones pre-tuned to actual musical scales. They can be used by the very young as they explore cause and effect or by the more advanced who want to perform actual melodies. The “Pegasus” is a resonated metallophone with anodized aluminum bars in the keys of C Major and A Minor. 

The Gathering Terrace, funded by a 2023 grant from the GLCF, features a serpentine brick walk, three backless benches that can serve those supervising children or those enjoying performances on the Stage, up to five musical instruments, along with attractively landscaped beds. This area is presently surrounded by a fence that will contribute to the safety of wandering children. When completed, the entire Melody Garden will feature up to 9 high-quality outdoor instruments all ADA-accessible through a system of brick walks nestled within a beautiful garden context. 

The encompassing Wharton Children’s Literacy Garden shares an entrance with the Bedford Central Library, where it is estimated that over 3,500 2-5 year-old children visit each year. Many of these families combine their Library visit with one to the ‘Wharton Garden’ where the play-to-learn activities are immersed within a beautiful garden context featuring waves of flowers, bold native stones, mature trees, and attractive shrub displays. 

In the early stages of planning the Wharton Garden, we focused on childhood learning as a garden mission and have included many tactile, visual and olfactory sensory experiences. Then we learned that the Wharton Garden meets many of the standards expressed by the American Horticultural Therapy Association. Now with the Melody Garden offering an interactive aural experience and providing the therapeutic benefits of music, we are expanding our mission to include a focused therapeutic dynamic. 

Research shows that exposure to musical instruments in the young will introduce a life-long appreciation for music as well as enhance their abilities to hear melodies and master rhythms. Studies also indicate that children who are exposed to music at a young age have more advanced cognitive skills, enhanced fine motor skills, improved memory as well as more developed critical thinking skills. Also, studies show that an interaction with music benefits those with special needs through the calming effect of pleasing tones, the exhilaration of creating musical sounds, as well as establishing an alternative mode of self-expression. 

We want our children and special needs neighbors to live in a culture in which music is life-affirming. We believe that music transcends both generational divides and the written and spoken word by allowing expressions of emotion that can soothe, build trust, and engender a sense of community. Furthermore, the Melody Garden now features six instruments enabling multiple people to participate simultaneously and share their experiences in a group setting. 

Come experience for yourself the happy sounds of the Garden, including the tones from the instruments, the bird songs and the delights of children having fun! And again, we gratefully appreciate the Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation. 

December 2023 - The Wharton Memorial Foundation is delighted to announce it was awarded a $4000 grant from the Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation to fund the site preparation for its new 

Melody Garden!

“In our ongoing effort to create a stimulating outdoor learning environment for children in the Bedford area through the thematically based Wharton Children’s Literacy Garden, we have designed an ADA-accessible Melody Garden which will include our existing Pergola/Stage complex and introduce a pleasing sound element to our overall learning experience”, says the WMF Board.

This grant provides the funding to upgrade the existing brick walks included in the Melody Garden plan and create a “Gathering Terrace” adjacent to the Pergola/Stage. The Gathering Terrace will feature a serpentine brick walk, three backless benches that can serve those supervising children or enjoying performances on the Stage, five musical instruments, along with attractively landscaped beds. The Gathering Terrace area is presently surrounded by a fence that will contribute to the safety of wandering children. 

Work has begun in the Wharton Garden on the creation of a native plant garden with diverse micro-environments to display a wide variety of plants native to the Piedmont of Virginia.  It will feature water as an element to attract birds and sustain wetland plants and acknowledge an historical connection to Louise Wharton (who started the garden here in the 1930’s) by incorporating some  of her species and rocks.

We hope to work with these partners to provide a place for educational programming:  Bedford Library, Bower Art Center, the Town of Bedford and other native plant associations in the area.

pictured: Virginia Bluebells ~ Mertensia Virginica