Vandal Healing Garden offers place to reflect, honor, heal for UI students who lost lives

MOSCOW, Idaho – Several emotions poured through Kristi and Steve Goncalves on Wednesday as they walked through the Vandal Healing Garden and Memorial that honors their slain daughter and all the other Vandals who lost their lives while enrolled at the university.

“It’s absolutely above and beyond what I expected,” said Kristi Goncalves, who wore a gray “Vandal Strong” shirt.

Their daughter, Kaylee Goncalves, was one of four University of Idaho students – Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle being the other three – who were killed in late 2022 in an off-campus home.

Hundreds of university students, including well-dressed fraternity and sorority members, UI staff and faculty and community members and leaders gathered Wednesday for the healing garden dedication.

“We lost four shining lights full of life and promise,” UI President Scott Green told the crowd. “This garden and memorial are dedicated to them and to all the students we’ve lost during their time at the University of Idaho.”

The center of the open garden includes a memorial with the engraved names of the four slain students.

Next to it, tall wooden blocks mark a section for loved ones to place messages, poems and memories of the lost Vandals. Several notes were dropped inside after Wednesday’s unveiling.

Various plants line the sidewalk that loops through the garden.

A 20-foot tall beacon that illuminates at night stands atop the hill at the south end of the healing space. The beacon of “light and hope” will always shine in moments of darkness, UI Dean of Students Blaine Eckles said.

Now a place to reflect, honor and heal, Green said the open space the garden sits was a “central hub of activity” from 1889 to 1966, where the community would gather to cheer on Vandals football and baseball teams at MacLean Field.

The College of Education, Health and Human Sciences Building and the Physical Education Building are situated on either side of the garden.

Several people, including the Goncalves couple, walked through the garden after the dedication.

Kristi Goncalves, with eyes redden from tears, said walking through the space made the experience real and sad. She said it also showed how important her daughter was and how many people cared.

The couple said they appreciated the planning and effort that went into the project.

The garden was designed and built by UI College of Art and Architecture students with guidance from faculty. They received no pay nor class credits for their work.

“The inspiration, thoughtfulness and hard work that went into this beautiful venue should make Vandals everywhere proud,” Green said.

Jackson Wiedenfeld, who recently graduated from the university with an architecture degree and who is in his first year as a UI graduate student, said he and his fellow students started construction on the garden the day after spring graduation.

It had taken 12-hour days in sweltering heat to complete the project, but “I wouldn’t change it for anything,” he said.

Wiedenfeld said he was a Theta Chi fraternity member as an undergraduate and knew of the four students who were killed. He saw how much the losses affected the tight-knit Greek family and knew he needed to do something.

“When I was presented with the opportunity to join this class, I couldn’t turn it down,” he said.

He said it was cool to see their drawings and models come to life with the help of his own hands.

“It’s breathtaking,” Wiedenfeld said.

Shauna Corry, dean for the College of Art and Architecture, said the “heroic crew of students,” led by Associate Professor of Architecture Scott Lawrence, built the garden in 2½ months.

The students experienced real-world conditions and timelines while learning from the best experts in the area, she said.

“Through it all, the Vandal spirit shined,” Corry said.

She invited the students, wearing black UI shirts, to stand in front of the large crowd, which applauded.

Eckles said the idea for the garden came about several years ago, but it began in earnest after the quadruple homicide, which he called some of the “darkest hours” for the university.

He approached Green and other UI officials the month after the killings about creating a memorial for the students, Green and others supported it, Eckles said.

Eckles thanked the Vandal Healing Garden and Memorial Committee, College of Art and Architecture, the families of the four slain students and the $285,000 in donations that made the garden possible.

“The loss of any individual is tragic and sad, but the thing that unites all of those students and many more is that they were Vandals enrolled here at the University of Idaho, and so this place, this sacred place, is for all of them,” Eckles said.

Drew Giacomazzi, who graduated from UI this past spring, was a member of the Vandal Healing Garden and Memorial Committee. He was also a friend of Chapin’s and member of the Sigma Chi fraternity Chapin was part of.

Giacomazzi said he tried to comfort friends in the months following the killings, and at times, ignored his own emotional needs.

“It became easy to slip into feelings of helplessness,” he said. “When Dean Eckles reached out to me about the possibility of joining this committee, I realized that this was something I not only wanted to contribute to, but that I could approach it with compassion, intentionality and empathy.”

He said his 18-month involvement in the project reinforced that life can be short and no Vandal is alone or forgotten.

“The process of creating this healing garden foreshadowed the purpose of this space itself – to unite the Vandal family and Moscow community and remind each of us of the love that we’re capable of giving and receiving,” Giacomazzi said.

The 30-minute dedication ended with student body president Martha Smith reading the names of Chapin, Goncalves, Kernodle and Mogen as well as the four other students who died since November 2022.

Since he started as dean of students in 2015, Eckles said 37 Vandals have lost their lives.

A 1-minute moment of silence, in which many crowd members bowed their heads, followed.

Smith said she knew Kernodle and Chapin and was in the same Greek community as Mogen and Goncalves. She said her life forever changed after their deaths.

“The Vandal family is a real thing and I’m so proud to see the work that’s been done to remember these individuals in such a meaningful and beautiful way,” Smith said.

Giacomazzi encouraged everyone to live like the four students.

“Do more of what you love to honor Kaylee,” he said. “Spread that love with random acts of kindnesss for Maddie. Be silly and do something spontaneous and fun to honor Xana. And tell stories with an abundance of laughter to live life like Ethan.”