Community Government Health & Wellness
Parks Commission recommends city consider installing wind phone
The Gig Harbor Parks Commission has recommended that the city consider installing a grief processing tool known as a wind phone in Grandview Forest or another peaceful, natural setting in the city.
A wind phone is a disconnected telephone in a natural setting. People can use the phone to privately express their feelings or speak with loved ones who have passed.
Japanese garden designer Itaru Sasaki first created the wind phone for his hometown of Ōtsuchi in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, in December 2010, after learning his cousin had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Liberty Henderson and her husband, Michael Henderson, presented the idea to the Parks Commission on Feb. 4. They own The Far North, an organization that helps people navigate grief.
People can use a wind phone to privately express their feelings or speak with loved ones who have passed. Image from city of Gig Harbor Parks Commission
No wind phones nearby
Liberty Henderson told commissioners that she set up the closest wind phone to Gig Harbor, in Olympia. She said that she and Michael felt Grandview Forest would be a good place for a phone in Gig Harbor, in part because of the carved trees that artists have created over the years as part of the city’s Harbor Arbor Art project.
Gig Harbor residents can’t themselves install anything in city-owned parks, so installing the phone would require coordination and written agreements with the city.
Parks Manager Jennifer Haro said that the city’s Public Works operations supervisor, Kyle Neiman, would prefer the phone on a post than on a tree, and that the city will need to discuss final approval for a location.
“I think we would probably prefer something along the lines of these [phones] and what [Liberty] has shared, just for impact to the park and keeping it simple,” Haro said of the wind phone options.
Liberty and The Far North would take responsibility for repairing and maintaining the wind phone.