Stars and Stripes Park, the latest attraction in Port St. Lucie’s Tradition community, opened June 4, giving the city a scenic memorial attached to an educational garden mapping the cosmos.
Over a week after Memorial Day commemorations in Veterans Park at Rivergate out east, the ribbon cutting attracted around 200. Veterans, faith leaders and real estate developers joined all five City Council members in their celebration. About 150 more joined in lighter celebrations in the solar system portion between the stars and the Riverland Paseo neighborhood. A live DJ and food trucks brought flavor to several astronomy-inspired activity stations.
The 26.5-acre park, 12441 Village Parkway in southwest Port St. Lucie, is projected to bring in approximately 30,000 visitors annually, according to the city’s Parks & Recreation Department. Their projections were formulated with Placer.ai, which gives visitation estimates from population and traffic data.
Three asymmetric metal stars, along with flowing tricolor strips, adorn its entrance. Each point of these stars is engraved with quotes from former military personnel and civilian first responders: police, paramedics and firefighters.
These quotes, left anonymous, affect a conversational tone not often found in memorials. Some speakers deprecate their work; others speak of carrying post-traumatic stress.
“The original thought was to provide two unique spaces in the park,” said Steven Garrett, a planner with Lucido & Associates. He added the quotes came from “about 150 interviews” conducted by the stars’ designer: Joseph O’Connell, director of Creative Machines of Tucson, Ariz.
Jime Ton, 100, was wheeled among the stars by his family, daughters Sherri Ton and Herren Rueda, and son-in-law Luis Rueda. The quotes on metal drew from generations and a country once unfamiliar to him. His service differed from many memorialized in Port St. Lucie. Ton lived through Imperial Japanese occupation in World War II and worked as a radio operator in the Chinese Navy during the late 1940s.
He later fled to Taiwan, where he worked for the American embassy. “He learned English, he learned bookkeeping, (and) a lot of American things,” said Herren Rueda of his integration with the embassy.
Ton left for America in 1973 “with $30 in his pocket,” and the intent to bring his family abroad, said Sherri Ton. “The rest of us came and, kind of, fulfilled the American dream for him.”
Years of pursuit led Ton and his children to retire in Tradition, neighbored by Stars & Stripes and “inspirational” quotes from “the people who built America,” Sherri Ton said.
“It’s hard to explain,” said Herren Rueda, who has a son in the Navy and a nephew in the Army. “You can’t get that from just driving by. You have to be here.”
The solar system further inside greets visitors with a gigantic sundial adorned with color-changing glass, also built by Creative Machines. Yards of concrete seating complement colored plates representing the planets, alongside milestones of their distance from the sun.
Volunteers met with people of all ages for activities inspired by their respective planets: ring-tossing for Saturn and bubbles braving the high winds of Uranus.
Those nine planets include Pluto. Its activity station included a “yes/no” voting board deciding whether or not to include the dwarf planet in the solar system. (The International Astronomical Union excluded Pluto from their counting of the planets in 2006).
A majority of voters said “yes” to including Pluto. Amber Dejoie, a middle schooler, wasn’t one of them. “When we look in our books, it doesn’t say that Pluto was a planet,” she said to justify her vote.
Beatrice Dejoie, mother of Amber, relished the inclusion of another “open space where it’s not crowded,” she said. She added that Stars & Stripes, near her Riverland home, offered “another opportunity to walk the trails” with her family.
Some were left skeptical. Gina and Ed Ayvazian, who moved from Long Island, N.Y., in 2023, thought the park provided more walking space for older adults like themselves, but little for children.
“I thought it’d be something very patriotic,” said Ed Ayvazian, of how the park’s themes, to him, cohered poorly. “Might as well have called it ‘Astro Park.’”
The open green space, without much of a treeline between the planets to duck under, also raised an eyebrow among them. “It’s Florida; you need shade to sit under,” Gina Ayvazian said.
They drew attention to the park’s lack of playground equipment and how the park, with its dog walk and longer trails, suited “older adults,” Gina Ayvazian said. “It’s a nice place to stroll. But, I don’t know, we’re always thinking about children.”