A group of Delta, B.C. teenagers got their hands dirty Saturday working on a memorial garden for Laura Szendrei, their friend and teammate who was brutally beaten to death last September in broad daylight.

The garden will have benches, flowers, shrubs and a plaque that reads "In loving memory of Laura Szendrei April 2, 1995 to September 26, 2010."

Five of Szendrei's friends have been fundraising for months to pay for the project, the scale of which has grown considerably since it was first conceived. The group now estimates it will cost about $20,000.

"We never actually expected it to get this big," teenager Kirsten Martin told CTV News. "Originally it was just going to be like 10 feet wide."

The sloped garden, located at Burnsview Secondary School, will now span about eight metres. Martin said she hopes it will help the community, which was devastated in the wake of the 15-year-old's shocking death, come to terms with the loss.

"It was so tough," Martin said of the impact on Szendrei's soccer teammates. "[Laura] was always the loudest and the most happy and hyper, and then all of a sudden that just stopped."

"We went from being a first-place team to basically coming in last this season because everyone was just so beaten up about it."

In April, a charity walk raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Laura Szendrei Memorial Scholarship Foundation. Some of that money will now go toward the garden, after the project caught the attention of foundation president Brian White.

Businesses have also volunteered money and supplies to the garden, including Home Depot, which donated a $300 gift card.

Szendrei's friends hope the garden will keep her legacy alive, and plan to pose there for their graduation pictures.

They were joined Saturday by members of Szendrei's family, who found the tribute touching but bittersweet.

"I'm excited to see what's going on but it's very sad," grandmother Betty Rotaro told CTV News. "We know that Laura will never be graduating and it's a loss to the world."

Organizers say thousands are still needed to finish funding the garden. Donations can be made online at the Walk, Run & Roll website.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Bhinder Sajan