The Martin Family Legacy Garden, a first-of-its-kind dementia inclusive park in Canada, has received a provincial accolade representing the work done to make dementia patients more connected to the Forest Lawn community.
The Alberta Recreation and Parks Association (ARPA) bestowed Parks Foundation Calgary with their 2025 Parks Excellence Award for the park, which is set to fully open to the public in 2026.
The award was presented to the foundation at the 2025 ARPA Conference in Lake Louise on Oct. 25.
Steve Duncan, interim CEO of the Parks Foundation, said that the non-profit couldn’t have been more excited to receive the award from ARPA.
“It’s our second time that we’ve won this. But the Martin Family Legacy Park is truly a one-of-a-kind, first-of-its-kind dementia-inclusive park, and that makes it so much sweeter,” he said.
The foundation received the 2019 Parks Excellence Award for Flyover Park, which was, at the time, also a first-of-its-kind park that utilized the space under the 4 Avenue Flyover.
Duncan said the award for the dementia-inclusive park would hopefully put a greater spotlight on the work to create open and park spaces in Canada for patients with dementia.
“To have it sandwiched between a Bethany Care Facility—the Riverview, which has it has a dementia complex within it—and the Greater Forest Lawn 55, and to have established between that and then be so inclusive and to include the neighbourhood as well in this, I hope that other communities take hold of this and and replicate it,” he said.
Getting the award for excellence was a result of the innovative design, as well as creating an open community accessible space, said Duncan.
“There’s many aspects of the park that can be used for both the community as a whole or the specific community of people living with dementia, their caregivers and their family. So, the joining of the two is one of the things that is very specifically inclusive in the design,” he said.
Since announcing the park in 2024 and holding a groundbreaking in 2025, Duncan said that there has been a tremendous outpouring of support, including support from local community organizations and the City of Calgary.
“We have support from Alzheimer’s Canada. We have support from the province. We have incredible support from all of our usual supporters, but also from the community as a whole,” he said.
