In the Know

23Strong Memorial Finds Its New Resting Place

Susan Venable sits on her 23Strong memorial bench that has been relocated to Lower Manning Park (Photo by Nick Masuda)

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Susan Venable can’t help but get choked up a bit, as the mental images that come from weeks of helping clear out other people’s homes amid natural tragedy are something that will stick with her for the rest of her life.

As an artist, the Montecito Debris Flow was chockful of visual reminders, but none more so than the 30 boulders that she saw as she returned from Los Angeles shortly after the disaster.

They were standing guard just off Jameson Road like sentinels, in Venable’s mind.

“I don’t even know why they were there, but it was just one of those moments where it sparked an idea inside of me,” Venable said.

The artist had never worked with a massive boulder in any piece, but this wasn’t a normal situation.

She approached First District Supervisor Das Williams with the idea of a memorial park, where the boulders would be made into a semi-circle with varying sizes, with the smallest representing the youngest of the 23 victims, the largest left for the oldest.

But the appetite for a full-fledged park just wasn’t there, Venable said, with too many other critical recovery efforts a much higher priority.

Williams did offer some advice: Find a private location to place a memorial — less red tape, same sentiment.

Thus, Venable’s 23Strong bench was borne.

“It was a vision just stuck in my head after all that I saw while helping the community; I just felt like we needed something to honor those that we had lost. Everyone knew someone impacted by the debris flow,” Venable said.

She shopped the idea of a single boulder, cut into a bench. No names, just 23Strong along the back.

She’d find a suitor at the San Ysidro Ranch, where the memorial was cut to specification to live next to a garden — all happening in a 48-hour time frame due to the impending wedding season that the Ranch was preparing for.

The bench had found its forever home.

Or so Venable had thought.

Recently, a friend told Venable that

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