Kibler Elementary School’s Associated Student Body spent the year raising money, digging up sod and weeding a patch of their campus to create an area to honor classmates.

The garden will honor the memory of Jared and Jordan Davis, Elizabeth Crews and Nolan Carroll, friends lost in the past five years since the Enumclaw elementary school added fourth- and fifth-grade students.

“These kids really were affected by this,” said SaraLee Rasmussen, who along with fellow teacher Lori Tuttle are helping the students create the garden.

About 25 students are involved in the school’s Associated Student Body, which is organizing the project. Through sales from items in the Bear Cave, the school’s student store, the ASB was able to raise nearly $1,000. The money usually funds an end-of-school event, Tuttle said, but this year students opted to spend less on the event and more on the garden.

“We didn’t tell them to do it,” she said. “It was their idea.”

“I thought it was pretty mature of them to come up with the thought,” Rasmussen said, and follow up with a plan to remember their friends.

The garden will be located in front of the school. It will include two granite benches with the students’ names and stepping stones that represent each child.

Students and families will continue to work on the project throughout the summer, including fifth-grade students who will be moving up to the middle school. A number of community members and businesses have already pitched in, but Kibler’s ASB is hoping to draw the interest or finances of a few more. Anyone interested can call the school.

The plan is to dedicate the memorial in the fall.

“We are hoping it will last forever,” Tuttle said.