A volunteer group is being organized to spruce up military veterans’ graves in Potter County, some of which have become nearly illegible from decades of exposure to weather.
Hundreds of veterans’ grave markers scattered in cemeteries across the county are being identified for inclusion in the project being organized by the Potter County Veterans’ Service Committee, made up of county veterans’ affairs director Bill Simpson, Commissioner Paul Heimel and county clerk Dawn Wooster.
Heimel, a member of the National Association of Counties’ Veterans’ and Military Service Committee, heard of a Florida man known as the “good cemeterian,” who has spent the past several years on a one-man public-service mission of cleaning veterans’ graves.
Andrew Lumish agreed to work with Potter County volunteers in an advisory role following a meeting with the Potter County committee earlier this year.
A kick-off event is planned at Eulalia Cemetery, the project’s first target, at 9 a.m. May 13, which will include a brief veterans’ memorial ceremony prior to the work detail. Cemetery secretary/treasurer Donna Lehman has been working to compile a list of all veterans buried at the Eulalia Cemetery on Route 6 west of Coudersport, including the exact locations of the veterans’ graves.
Organizers have acquired a few grave restoration kits, which include an environmentally safe cleaning solution used in national military cemeteries. Donations to the veterans’ service fund administered by Potter County commissioners is funding start-up expenses.
After testing out the process in Eulalia, organizers plan to move on to other cemeteries in the county, and to eventually include all veterans’ graves within the county.
Volunteers are being sought to help out at Eulalia and other locations, but also to adopt graves to ensure that veterans continue to be recognized and their graves cared for in the future. Organizers are optimistic that the responsibility to care for the adopted graves can be passed down to future generations.
“It’s our hope that cemetery managers, veterans’ service organizations, local historians, school and youth organizations and family members of our departed veterans will answer this local call to duty,” said Simpson.
Organizers are not stopping at cleaning graves. An additional, and ambitious, aspect of efforts to honor veterans is the development of a website and database identifying the location of each veterans’ grave and listing biographical information on Potter County’s deceased veterans.
“This is going to become a very important part of our work, and we are going to need plenty of help,” Simpson said. “Our goal will be to compile photographs and biographical information on Potter County’s veterans to be publicly posted with each grave location. Much like the grave marker restoration, this will be a major task and require ongoing maintenance for many years to come, but we have to start somewhere.”
Several cemetery managers, community leaders and other volunteers have already signed up to the effort, Simpson said.
Anyone interested in being updated on the project or to sign up as a volunteer should contact Dawn Wooster at dwooster@pottercountypa.net, or by phone at 274-8290 ext. 207. Regular updates on the Potter County Veterans Gravestone Restoration Project will be disseminated by email.
