Outdoor Classroom to Be Built in Memory of 12-Year-Old West Hartford Girl

Brigid Curtin loved to spend days at Westmoor Park in West Hartford and an outdoor classroom Is being built at her beloved park to honor her memory.

Friday was a bittersweet day for Brigid’s parents, Jane Murphy and Tim Curtin, as they shared memories of their 12-year-old daughter who died tragically in December 2018.  Police said Brigid’s twin brother stabbed her inside the family's West Hartford home.

Standing at the summer camp assembly area Friday, Tim Curtain recalled dropping his daughter off and watching her run off for days of fun and adventure.

Brigid loved working with the animals and even cleaning their stalls at Westmoor Park

Jane Murphy said her daughter liked to go to the park every morning and she’d say, “let’s get the dirty work done first, because cleaning out the barn was one of the dirty work projects,” then it was time to have fun.

Brigid had hoped one day to be a counselor at the camp at the park, her father said.

After Brigid’s death, the community reached out to her family to support them and see what they could do to honor Brigid’s memory.

“Without hesitation, our response was, ‘support Westmoor Park,” Tim Curtain said.

What was needed most was an outdoor classroom and shelter, a place to hold classes and seminars, to get out of the sun and to have a safe place to go during storms.  

From there, Friends of Brigid Curtin at Westmoor Park was created to raise funds to turn that dream into a reality. Hundreds of donations flowed in, more than $320,000 in total.

Now work is beginning and a ribbon-cutting ceremony is expected in July.

Jane Murphy said they are also in the midst of conversations with the Westmoor Park to start a scholarship and sponsor a counselor and an instructor in Brigid’s memory.

“Brigid loved Westmoor very, very much. She’d be very happy to have everybody in the town have the opportunity to come here,” Jane Murphy said.

“This is the ground where Brigid walked and played and laughed and spent her summers. The carefree days of youth. Jane and I miss her beyond words, but we find comfort in the project and the utility and joy that will bring,” Tim Curtain said.