Fundraising for Infant Memorial Butterfly Garden Starts Monday

Starting Monday you can pitch in to help build a butterfly memorial garden in Stow to honor young loved ones that have died. 

Nicci Hefflefinger, the aunt of an infant who passed away from the"worst disease you never heard of" in April 2012, starts her fundraising campaign to build a butterfly memorial garden for her late niece with a special dinner.

Monday, the organization Dinner in the Dark Cleveland will hold a fundraising dinner in which 100 percent of the proceeds from the tasty night out will benefit Hefflefinger's plans to build the memorial garden.

Hefflefinger said they've been tied up with paper work and other efforts to establish a non-profit means to raise money for the garden, which was approved by Stow City Council in October.

"There’s been a lot of red tape to get through," she said. "Now we’re just starting to get together fundraisers."

The first of which is Monday's Dinner in the Dark, at which six different chefs from around Cleveland will come together for a special dinner. Once monthly the six chefs hold a special dinner at which the chefs and the six courses are not revealed until the night of the meal.

For May, Dinner in the Dark chose Hefflefinger's garden project as its beneficiary.

Monday's dinner will be held at AMP 150 inside the Cleveland Airport Marriott. Tickets are available online and there are 24 remaining.

The garden plan was devised after Hefflefinger , to Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa — Herlitz (EB), a rare genetic disorder that causes blistering to the skin.

Babies with this disorder were known as butterfly children.

Hefflefinger said she is hopeful to hold two more fundraisers this fall with the goal of raising between $50,000 and $60,000 — the estimated cost to create the garden, which is planned for space at the city's Sancturetum in a vacant and overgrown area next to the Akron-General Wellness Pathway behind City Hall. 

"I’m hoping that’s going to raise the majority of the money," she said of the remaining fundraisers.