Family and friends gathered in the heart of Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood to remember Karolina Huebner-Makurat as a parkette was renamed in her honour close to a year after she was tragically killed in a shooting.
More than a hundred people gathered in the parkette near Gerard Street East and Logan Avenue to see the unveiling of the sign for what will now be known as Caroline Huebner Parkette.
“Caroline” Huebner-Makurat, a 44-year-old mother of two, was struck and killed on July 7, 2023, by a stray bullet near Queen Street East and Carlaw Avenue – an innocent bystander caught in the middle of an alleged gunfight between three men, her shocking death sparked outrage and sadness in the community.
After helping unveil the new sign, Karolina’s husband Adrian Makurat reflected on his late wife’s legacy that will now live on through the parkette.
“It’s a special place for my family and now it’s a very special place for, not (just) the immediate community, but for Toronto proper,” he said.
A Freeman maple tree was also planted in Huebner-Makurat’s memory, which Makurat said was a fitting honour. “In autumn, it’s going to be a very bright red, a colour that looked so beautiful on Caroline that I think it’s going to show throughout so many years to come,” he said.
The amount of people who attended the dedication, he said, just showed the reach that his late wife had throughout the region. “This is a beautiful tribute to someone special, but also the people that live next to us, we go to know them because of a park like this,” Makurat said.
“Because of the nature of Caroline, being so loving and forward with anyone she met,” he said, “she always wanted to bring people together and that’s what a park does.”
Toronto-Danforth City Councillor Paula Fletcher said it was clear from the turnout that there is an overwhelming amount of love for Huebner-Makurat’s family.
“I wish we didn’t have to put (this sign) up, but it is a fitting tribute to a beautiful woman who worked on the playground revitalization, who was a community leader who connected everybody,” said Fletcher.
“You don’t find people like that all that often, so having this little, beautiful space dedicated to her I think is just so fitting today,” she said.
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