Upcoming Horn Pond Lantern Walk Remembers Those Lost

“Lantern diva” Andrea Kulish decorated 100 lanterns in memory of her mother, Ariadna, shortly after her mother died. Then she decorated 100 in memory of her father, Very Rev. John Kulish, who had died years earlier. One of her designs features the flag of the Ukraine, where her dad was born. The upper half is blue, representing sky; the lower half, golden yellow, representing wheat. Across them lies a sprig of lily of the valley, her father’s favorite flower.

Elle Kushmerek, 3, decorated her first lantern Friday at . Hers features pink butterflies.

Cailin O’Toole of Woburn has made hundreds of the lanterns.

Light from candles in hand-decorated lanterns will glow around Horn Pond this coming Sunday evening when people come together to remember someone they’ve lost and also support .

The sixth annual Horn Pond Memorial Lantern Walk will start at 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 29, at the Lake Avenue pump house parking area.

O’Toole brought the idea of a lantern walk to Woburn, she said, from Jamaica Plain, where she lived before moving back to Woburn six years ago.

Before the walk, people can decorate a lantern at a Friday workshop at Whole Foods Market, from 5 to 7 p.m., or receive a pre-decorated one at the walk for a donation of between $5 and $20.

“In our world we have all the earth, water and air we could ask for,” O’Toole said, in between asking shoppers if they’d like to create their own lantern design at Whole Foods this past Friday.

“Something about fire brings warmth and comfort,” she added.

O’Toole had run Lantern Walks in Jamaica Plain, she said. Her son, Michael Lutz, encouraged her to start one when she moved here, she explained, in memory of friends he had lost.

Tragedy struck Michael just over three years ago, his mother recounted, on Jan. 27, 2008.  He died in a car accident. He was 22.

The walk here drew about 100 people the first year, according to O’Toole. The number rose to 400, she said, after Michael died.

Colleen Young of Woburn is one of the people who walk in Michael’s memory.

Her friend, Lauren Lemack, came to Friday’s workshop with Kira Judd, her Little Sister. Both Lemak and Judd made lanterns for the first time last year and kept them.

“Since (Young is) so passionate about this, I come (from Billerica)," Lemack explained.

Kira designed a lantern this year in memory of her aunt, Pam Hand.

The walk was originally scheduled around prom time, according to O’Toole. Then she tied it to Memorial Day, to service personnel and to “soldiers at home,” children “who learn to live and function when things go against them.”

The walk around Horn Pond can take about an hour, depending on one’s pace, O’Toole said.

With donations from the event, “We are trying to be stewards” of Mary Cummings Park, 210 acres of public park on the border of Woburn and Burlington, O’Toole said. “The city of Boston promised to keep it in trust ‘forever open as a public pleasure ground’” in 1930, according to according to a brochure from her about the park.

If you can’t come on the lantern walk, “light a candle” during that hour, O’Toole suggested, “and be there in spirit.”

Questions about the Sunday walk or Friday workshop?  Contact O’Toole at soullanterns@gmail.com or 781-267-3720.