Charlotte Red Bench Garden Cooperation Circle (CC) members gather the community annually to observe individual and collective efforts to bridge understanding, uplift social issues, and encourage continued sharing between faiths, races and cultures. On June 10, 2010, the Garden of Forgiveness was established, sanctioned by the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, in Freedom Park. The following year, they gathered community members and witnessed reconciliation between citizens who were involved in the first desegregation of Harding High School in 1957. The community was then invited to visit the garden for meditation and leave messages on forgiveness from which a visual art presentation was created. After that the community was invited to a flute meditation circle and was joined by the Baha’i community Oneness Day. They plan to continue working in meditation to increase the awareness of love, forgiveness and compassion as a means to empower, motivate and facilitate positive change in personal and collective community life.
