Our fantastic sensory garden is officially opened

On the first day of Spring we were delighted to be joined by our wonderful friends at LEGOLAND and Merlin’s Magic Wand to officially open the Woodland themed sensory garden they designed and created for us.

Today the opening of the garden was marked by the final LEGO® brick flowers being planted into the garden.  Joining the celebrations were a number of teams from the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort, Merlin Entertainments and supporting local businesses who helped to create the garden, alongside Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service families and staff.

The sensory garden, which has been two years in the making, offers an interactive, safe and sensory space for the families supported our children’s hospice service. With wheelchair friendly winding pathways, the garden is brought to life with scented plants, herbs and in raised flower beds. There’s a calming water feature, storytelling area, mud kitchen and musical play pieces including a rain wheel, petal drum, xylophone and percussion post. Tall bamboo grasses create a rustling sound each time the wind blows and the garden is teaming with an array of bold and bright flowers and plants.

Nestled amongst the plants and flowers are a host of LEGO models built by the talented team of LEGOLAND Model Makers.  Children can discover robins, rabbits, butterflies, ladybirds and squirrels each made of hundreds of tiny LEGO bricks. The garden also features a magical LEGO village of miniature fairy homes, where the fairies can be seen enjoying a tiny tea party.

Fiona Devine, our CEO and Co-Founder, said, “It is with the greatest of pleasure that we open our Woodland themed sensory garden today with our wonderful friends at the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort and Merlin’s Magic Wand.  I can honestly say it is a fantastic friendship and we have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of working with them.

“The garden design is beautiful and the LEGO models really add fun and detail to our garden. Our heartfelt thanks to the staff at LEGOLAND Windsor and Merlin’s Magic Wand for their support, creativity and passion for our sensory garden.  Our garden will bring many smiles and hours of fun to our children and their families, what greater gift to give.”

Thomas Jellum; Divisional Director of the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort commented, “We are delighted to see the LEGOLAND sensory garden open today. The LEGOLAND Windsor Resort team have worked incredibly hard designing, landscaping and building LEGO models for this wonderful Magic Space. Our friendship with the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service team is incredibly important to us and we hope that the garden helps families to make magical memories together.” 

Erin Woods, Merlin’s Magic Wand Charity Manager said, “We are extremely proud to have produced our first LEGOLAND-themed sensory garden, in partnership with the incredibly talented LEGOLAND Windsor Resort team. Merlin’s Magic Spaces require a lot of time and dedication from a group of passionate people and the LEGOLAND team can be sure that they have made a real difference for the children in their community with this project.  It has been a privilege to witness Fiona Devine’s journey to build this amazing hospice and we were delighted to be able to contribute to it in our own special way. On behalf of the Merlin’s Magic Wand team, I’d like to say a huge thank you to the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service and the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort for making this dream a reality.”

The sensory garden is part of a wider partnership between the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort and the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service which began in 2014. The long term partnership sees LEGOLAND support with fundraising and helping families to create magical memories, offering VIP days out each year for the families supported by Alexander Devine.

Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service also received funding towards the garden from Tesco’s Bag of Help community grants scheme.