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October 8, 2025
By Barrett Seaman–
In a small pocket of land nestled beneath Phelps Hospital’s main building is a small oasis with benches, a fountain, shelter provided by a pavilion, embraced by plantings arrayed so as to highlight each of the four seasons. On Tuesday, in the presence of State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, County Executive Ken Jenkins and a host of other local politicians, Phelps President Beata Mastalerz officially opened this Serenity Garden as a place of refuge and calm.
Specifically created for patients dealing with behavioral health issues, the garden is nonetheless available to all—patients, their family members and caregivers, doctors, nurses and anyone passing by. Ken Jenkins described it as somewhere “to take a deep breath in a place that feels safe and welcoming.” The garden, said CEO Mastalerz, “sends a message that it’s okay not to be okay.”
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The $360,000 project was funded entirely by more than 100 individual donors, led by Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky and hospital community board member Debra Frieden Perlo, in honor of her brother, Gary Frieden, who died by suicide in 1971.
The garden and its prominent placement are testimony to Phelps’ recognition of the need for behavioral health programs. As Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins observed in comments before the ribbon-cutting, :certainly post-COVID, we all understand the mental health difficulties that are manifesting in so many ways.”
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