October 7, 2008
- Coos Bay / North Bend, Oregon
Volunteers spruce up Coos Bay cemetery
By Azenith Smith
COOS BAY - It's a historic resting place in Coos Bay with more than 2,000 bodies buried there, many of them veterans. To make sure it's preserved well, several volunteers spruce it up just in time for Memorial Day.
It may not have been the greatest turnout, but those that did come out made a difference on Saturday during a workday at the Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery. With the theme, "This Place Matters," among the tasks included maintenance work, repairs due to vandalism and recording headstone transcriptions, all of which helps the cemetery keep its appearance. "The cemetery has come a long way from what it did look like four years ago," says Coordinator Becky Soules. "There's still certainly a long ways to go with recording the history and fixing the headstones. I hope everyone realizes there's still lots more that they can do." Even more so, since Becky Soules, who's headed up the clean-up effort for the past four years, will be graduating from Marshfield High School this year. Now, she's hoping more of the community will step up and take charge of the project. "By encouraging relatives to come back and adopt the plot and even just community members to come in and adopt the plot of someone buried here," says Soules. "I'm also talking with the city and the school to figure out who can do what to make sure the cemetery never becomes forgotten again." The day's purpose was to have it ready for a Memorial Day ceremony on May 24, right after the Memorial Day parade. Co-sponsored with the local Vietnam Veterans of America, the event will recognize all veterans, living and dead. For the first time, special medals will also be given to veterans and those serving in the Armed Forces. |
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