A cache to commemorate a brave boy that drowned while trying to save his friend.
I was searching this part of Scarborough on GOOGLE maps to find places to hide some caches. This park caught my eye because of its unusual name: Birunthan Park. I wondered who or what Birunthan was. I GOOGLED it, and found a story by The Toronto Star on the dedication of this park to Birunthan Nadarajah who drowned trying to save his friend who had fallen through the ice in a pond in Scarborough in December 2006. I vaguely remembered reading about the incident in the news back then. The park was dedicated ten years ago in July 2008.
From The Star:
“Birunthan Muralitharan Nadarajah died when he was 11 years old.
In December 2006, he was on his way to an impromptu soccer game with a group of friends when they took a shortcut by an icy pond near Morningside Ave. and Finch Ave. E. His friend Kishoban Alakeswaran, 15, stepped out onto the ice to skip some stones and fell through the surface. Nadarajah grabbed his friend's hands, but he, too, fell in when the ice broke beneath him. Nadarajah drowned and Alakeswaran died in hospital about a week later without ever regaining consciousness.”
If you’d like to read the full article, here’s a link to the story: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2008/07/13/park_named_after_boy_hero.html
I thought there might be a plaque somewhere in the park, but we didn’t see one. Only the park sign carries his name. The cache is a camoed Lactaid bottle and should be a fairly straightforward find. We tried to hide it so people in the nearby homes couldn’t see what you’re doing. But watch out for muggles in the park!
NOTE: Cache as of Jan. 16, 2022, is a green bison tube.
Please bring your own pen or pencil to sign the logbook.