Jennifer Valeri wants to bring more colour to the city's memorial benches.
Next month, the Waterdown resident will delegate at the City of Hamilton public works committee, where she'll be asking to create more options for families looking to buy a city memorial bench.
Currently, residents can have a grey or brown bench with a plaque engraved for a loved one, but after creating a pride-themed bench in Joe Sams Park, Valeri wants there to be more options.
"What I'm trying to do now is get [the pride bench] to be one of the pre-approved benches for purchase at the city," she said.
The bench in Joe Sams Park is dedicated to Chris Owens, a 26-year-old Waterdown man who lost his battle with mental health and addiction in 2021. The bench commemorates Owens as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
The first and only pride bench in the city sits where the yearly run in Owens's honour begins.
Valeri says she has been working with city's manager of parks and cemeteries, Kara Bunn, and district superintendent of parks Steve Hassleman to get the project off the ground.
"We designed a pride bench with the Parks department," she said, "but that was just a one-off."
Valeri began advocating for LGBTQ+ visibility in the Waterdown community several years ago, when her family had the rainbow crosswalk installed at the intersection on Parkside Drive at the entrance to Waterdown District High School and Allan A. Greenleaf Elementary School.
Memorial benches are private purchases by families through the city, she said, and those families should have more variety to choose from — including a bench that celebrates pride.
"This option should be available. If people don't want to pay for a pride bench, they don't have to, but it should be an option that people have," she said.
