It should have been the latest chapter in the campaign to save the Botanical Gardens, now a family day of activities in the Gardens this Sunday will be a victory celebration and a ringing endorsement of the power of people protest.

As organisers prepared to put the finishing touches to plans for a Sunday of events in the Gardens, including music, entertainment, games and activities, they received unexpected news that new Health Minister Nelson Bascome no longer considers the Botanical Gardens a viable location for a replacement to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

The news came as two of the chief campaign protagonists to save the Gardens were off the Island. Environmentalist Stuart Hayward had endured a number of airline connection delays making his way back from North America, but arrived in time to join it fellow campaigners as they announced what is planned for Sunday’s family day.

Save the Gardens website originator Lisa Vickers was stunned by the Health Minister’s announcement in the House of Assembly and is heading back from her new posting with Greenpeace in Amsterdam to attend Sunday’s event.

While Bermuda’s international recording artist Heather Nova had already pledged support for the cause and is lined up as one of the performers at the family day.

“The Gardens were special to me as a child. The trees are like old friends and now I have a boy of my own who comes here to play,” said Ms Nova.

“Open space is such a vital part of our Island. We have so precious little of it left. For children it inspires creativity. I know everyone of those trees, they are so important.”

Ms Nova is back home writing songs for a new album she hopes to record next summer.

Because she feels so strongly for the cause of saving the Botanical Gardens she did not hesitate to offer her services for the family day and will perform a number of songs alongside a number of fellow Bermudian performers including Val Wallace, Ras Giorgis, Joy Barnum and the band Olybhosh.

Campaigner Stuart Hayward, who chairs the ECO group, welcomed the Health Minister’s change of direction, he said: “The new Premier was making positive noises about the Botanical Gardens. The climate was changing to this direction and we have this for this moment.”

But he also warned: “This Minister has made a different decision to the previous Minister but another Minister could come along and make yet another decision.”

Mr. Hayward views the events of the past few months as an educating process that shows what might befall any of the park spaces on the Island and what needs to be done to protect them.

“This must not happen again. The importance of the Gardens was not appreciated by the public in general. Our job was to elevate the appreciation of what the Botanical Gardens stands for.

“This Sunday was always billed as a celebration now it’s going to be a victory celebration — a celebration of open space and park lands in general.”

He added: “We must thank all the people who wore green on Green Day, who signed the petition, wrote letters and organised things.”

The family day will take place in the Gardens on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and all are welcome.