‘It’s not trash:’ Why memorial for Hilton Head girl was removed in trash bags by POA
A memorial for 11-year-old Charli Bobinchuck, who died in June 2018 after being struck by a car on U.S. 278, was once sprawled in a community park in Yacht Cove on Hilton Head Island.
On Tuesday, the items that made up the memorial — stuffed animals, crosses, pinwheels and toys that remind neighborhood children of Charli — were put in large black trash bags and placed on her parents’ lawn.
“Apparently the dedications left by Islanders and neighborhood children to my deceased daughter is considered by the Yacht Cove POA to be trash,” Bryan Bobinchuck posted on Facebook.
“It’s not trash,” Daisy Bobinchuck, Charli’s mother, said Wednesday. She called the move “cowardly.”
A member of the board of directors at Yacht Cove says the board gave the Bobinchucks written notice to remove the items on July 15. Prior to that, the board said its president spoke with Bobinchuck about the deteriorating condition of the stuffed animals.
“We simply asked that that stuff be cleaned up. We sent the parents a letter in early July after a prior conversation the board president had with Bryan,” said Laurel Fasciano, secretary of the board. “Bryan wanted to wait for the one year anniversary” of Charli’s death. Then, she said, “he would clean it up.”
Board Vice President Bruce Pitkin said the entire board of directors voted to send the letter to the Bobinchucks, although Fasciano could not produce meeting minutes from the vote, and other board members say they were unaware of the push to remove the items. One board member resigned Tuesday night in response to the incident, she said.
But Daisy Bobinchuck said neither she nor her husband received the letter sent by the POA.
On Tuesday, the POA board directed the community landscaper to clean up the items and place them on the Bobinchucks’ property. He did so by placing the items in trash bags.
‘You don’t leave it up forever’
The issue at hand is whether the memorial can exist in a shared space. In December, the neighborhood donated a blue bench to the park to memorialize Charli. Some now say the bench should have taken the place of the stuffed animals.
“Some of this stuff is getting really aged, you don’t leave it up forever,” Pitkin said of the stuffed animals he said were “moldy.”
Yacht Cove’s covenants do not specifically address memorials in public spaces, but the board of directors can decide how the common areas are used, Fasciano said.
The removal of the items has sparked a spirited discussion among neighbors and those outside of Yacht Cove. Neighbors, some of whom say they are considering legal action, pointed to desecration laws that govern destruction of memorial parks.
Although the park has not been officially designated as a memorial park for Charli, the bench and a recently donated statue bear her name.
“It is unlawful for a person willfully and knowingly, and without proper legal authority to deface, vandalize, injure, or remove a gravestone or other memorial monument or marker commemorating a deceased person or group of persons, whether located within or outside of a recognized cemetery ... (or) memorial park,” according to the SC code of laws on offenses against public policy.
‘Its backfiring’
Daisy Bobinchuck said Wednesday morning that new items were appearing at the park in an act of protest.
“It’s backfiring on them,” she said. “There’s just as much stuff out there as there ever was.”
But she said the items themselves aren’t what makes the park special.
“They can take our stuff away, but it’s not going to change the feeling there,” Bobinchuck said. “The stuff that’s there isn’t what makes that place special to me.”
A roadside memorial remains on U.S. 278, where Bobinchuck was killed.
This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 3:07 PM.
