Law. Co. Cemetery Preservation Society working to preserve the past

New organization strives to clean, maintain area cemeteries that have been neglected, forgotten over time
On Memorial Day weekend, thousands of people in Lawrence County and the surrounding areas spent at least a portion of their time decorating the final resting places of their loved ones. But while they were placing flowers, wreaths, American flags and other adornments, many thousands of other graves, mostly located in smaller, private cemeteries, lay forgotten. A newly formed Lawrence County organization is hoping to change that.
The Lawrence County Cemetery Preservation Society (LCCPS) seeks to help those in charge of the smaller cemeteries in the area.
“It’s composed of people who are involved in the cemeteries in Lawrence County,” said member Scott George, and the purpose of the of the society is to help the cemeteries of Lawrence County do better, help them with their problems and issues.”
There are over 175 cemeteries in Lawrence County, George said, and while some are well run and taken care of, others were lost as their former caretakers were no longer able to look after them.
“But what’s happened over the decades is, as the people that take care of these over 175 cemeteries in Lawrence County …get older, they get to where they can’t take care of them. Or the people that were taking care of them passed away, and there really isn’t anyone coming along to help, to take them over,” said George. “Some of these cemeteries are completely overgrown, and some are lost. They’re gone.”

LCCPS helps connect cemeteries in need of help with volunteers
The LCCPS, George said, seeks to help those cemeteries in danger of falling into disrepair by connecting them with those who are willing to help.
“A lot of them don’t have people coming along and to help them, so one of the things that we talk about and share with (those who look after) cemeteries is get groups to help you. Youth groups, churches, civic groups; all of them are looking for service projects.”
One example George gave was from Mt. Vernon High School’s Serve Day in November of last year. He said a group of students, under the leadership of a person experienced in cemetery preservation, were able to reset the headstones from the Hillcrest Cemetery, which is located on the school’s grounds. George said that before the project many of the cemeteries headstones were either sinking into the ground or were “completely out of sight.”
“Then the Mt. Vernon High School had their Serve Day,” he said, “we asked for a group of students. We got about 20 students and, of course, none of them knew anything about getting stones out. I didn’t know anything about getting stones out (either), but we had somebody who was very experienced at that, Connie Smith from IOF Cemetery. We used the “Tell them, Show them, Watch them, Let them” training technique. She told us how to do it, and she showed us how to do it. We watched them do it with our help, and in an hour, they had 155 stones out of the ground.”

Cemetery preservation only requires a small amount of time
George said he encourages anyone who would like to help preserve the area cemeteries to join the LCCPS or another cemetery association.
“Just go and help,” he said. “It doesn’t take a lot of time. And you learn history while you’re doing it. Look for your ancestors, find out what cemeteries they’re in, and see (to it) that they’re … taken care of. (Also) donate money. It takes money, you know to keep cemeteries up, but it doesn’t take hundreds of thousands of dollars to do this. The $20 donation is an amazing thing.”
The next meeting of the LCCPS will be on June 20 at 6 p.m. at the Mt. Vernon Professional Building, located at 1011 S. East Street in Mt. Vernon.