In Saturday’s Rockford Register Star, columnist Geri Nikolai wrote about the new Ipsen Conservatory, which recently opened at Rosecrance’s Griffin Williamson Campus:
“Anyone who has worked a garden knows the feeling of peace it brings.
“Whether you spend an afternoon tending valuable roses or pulling weeds from a carrot patch, you finish the task with a serenity that life doesn’t always provide.
“Teenagers are experiencing that at Rosecrance’s adolescent treatment center on Rockford’s far east side. Their treatment program always included daily use of the seven-acre Healing Garden, a small Japanese garden designed by the same landscaper who did the world-renowned Anderson Japanese Gardens on Spring Creek.
“Now the teens also will learn, and heal, in a 23- by 33-foot conservatory on the roof of the residential center for alcohol and drug abuse treatment. The $500,000 conservatory, which overlooks the Healing Garden, was funded largely by donors, including Susan Ipsen for whom the Ipsen Conservatory is named.”