HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Discovery Garden, located at Legion Park in Hollidaysburg, will celebrate the Garden’s 25th anniversary at a special reception on Thursday, Sept. 18.

The Discovery Garden Executive Committee and volunteers will provide refreshments at 5:30 p.m., along with a performance by the Altoona Symphony. A brief program of acknowledgements will begin at 6 p.m., followed by more music and camaraderie after.

The Discovery Garden, a project of the Skills Foundation, is an award-winning public garden located adjacent to the Kids’ Kingdom Play Park in Legion Park. Since its opening in 2000, the Garden has become a community and regional sightseeing and gathering destination. This beautiful and peaceful place is dedicated to the memory of Courtney Leigh Claton. In 2008, Discovery Garden earned the Community Greening Award presented by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Alliance; the award recognizes the creation and maintenance of a public green space that enhances the community.

The Discovery Garden is handicap accessible and includes a Horticultural Therapy Garden. Other specialty gardens in this botanical space include the Cottage Garden, which earned the 2016 “Garden of Distinction” blue ribbon from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society; the Time Garden, which contains one of the largest horizontal sundials on the East Coast; the Children’s Garden, which includes a potting shed, a rabbit hole tunnel and a rainbow garden; and the new Rain Garden. The Discovery Garden also contains the Planting Garden, consisting of raised beds planted in the spring by local elementary school students. The latest addition is a new kaleidoscope, designed and built by one of the world’s most renowned kaleidoscope artists, installed in 2023.