In celebration of Earth Day 2023, Pennsylvania Hallowed Grounds and the Friends of Lebanon Cemetery are inviting stewards of African American cemeteries and burial sites across Pennsylvania to join together and organize a Statewide Cemetery Cleanup at our cemeteries on Saturday, April 22, 2023. If April 22 does not work for you, just let us know a day this spring when your group will be holding its event.
Click HERE for the list of participating cemeteries.
Each site will organize their own day of service and recruit local volunteers to do the work that needs to be done at your sites. It might be raking leaves, cutting back weeds and brush, cleaning headstones, planting flowers, picking up trash, repairing fences,, photographing and documenting headstones, or whatever spring cleanup work your site may require.
Pennsylvania Hallowed Grounds will be reaching out to service organizations, businesses, schools and universities, historical societies, and veterans organizations across the state to let them know these events are happening and to encourage them to join and support this effort.
We will also be hosting a special Stewards Roundtable on Tuesday, March 14 at 7:00 pm with tips, tricks, and advice on how to organize and hold a safe, successful volunteer day of service at your cemetery–one that will accomplish meaningful work and build public support for your site. We hope you will join us both to learn some tricks to make your own events more successful, and also to share your experience if you have held successful events in the past.
On our Cemetery Preservation Tool Kit page, you can also find a Volunteer Liability Waiver Form, as well as a handy Cemetery Volunteer Opportunity Information Sheet that you can share with churches, businesses, schools, or service organizations in your community that may be interested in volunteering at your cemetery.
Please click HERE to complete a form to let us know if you will be holding an even and we will add you to our list of participating sites. The form will ask you to provide the following information:
- The name of your cemetery
- The date of your event
- The start time, end time, and location of your event
- The number of volunteers needed
- A contact phone number, email, or social media address that volunteers can use to sign up.
- Please specify whether volunteers must register with you ahead of time in order to participate in your event.
- Any other information you would like us to share with potential volunteers (such as what to bring, how to dress, where to park, etc.).
We are excited to be organizing this event and to helping to mobilize communities across the state in support of our hallowed grounds.