Eagle Scout strives to tidy up historic cemetery
Prospective Eagle Scout Will Weinbecker demonstrates how to clean a gravestone in the Historic St. Nicholas Cemetery with Wet & Forget as his fellow Boy Scouts watch.
Under the leadership of prospective Eagle Scout Will Weinbecker of St. Nicholas, the Historic St. Nicholas Cemetery got a much-needed spruce up Nov. 4 thanks to the efforts of Boy Scout Troop 106 from Assumption Catholic Church and more than 20 neighborhood residents.
A sophomore at Bishop Kenny, Weinbecker lives within shouting distance of the historic grave site. He said he selected the cemetery clean-up project in order to perform a valuable community service. “There are graves here from the 1800s, and there are not a lot of people here to take care of the gravestones,” he said. “I think a bunch of people who are buried here are from this area, so it is kind of nice to give back in this way. Three years ago, I needed service hours for my school and I was in here raking leaves. It was then I saw in what disrepair this place is. When I needed to do my Eagle project, I figured this place needed some work.”
Ginger and Bunker McClendon trim the bushes near the Historic St. Nicholas Cemetery sign while Beth Pavlicberry looks on during a clean-up day that was part of neighbor Will Weinbecker’s Eagle Scout project Nov. 4.
After consulting with Kay Ellen Gilmour, a St. Nicholas resident who has informally looked after the cemetery for more than 20 years, Weinbecker said in addition to using able workers from his troop, he also called for neighborhood help by posting a request for assistance on the St. Nicholas neighborhood Facebook page. Many nearby residents showed up to assist, including Jim Williams, who recalled he was a Boy Scout in the early 1960s.
“I’ve done cemetery cleanup here for 19 years,” said Williams, who arrived with his chainsaw. “Be prepared is my motto, and when the hurricane comes, I am prepared.”
Weinbecker’s project consisted of using Wet & Forget, a liquid chemical cleaner to dissolve algae, moss, mildew and mold from the old headstones and stone walls. He and his helpers also picked up sticks and trimmed back vines growing along the fences. “We will clean every gravestone. I expect to be finished today,” he said.
The last time a Boy Scout cleaned up the Historic St. Nicholas Cemetery as his Eagle project was in 1987, when Rob Heekin Jr. of St. Nicholas cleaned up the area and catalogued as many of the graves as he could. “It was a jungle here at that time,” said Heekin’s father, Rob, who currently serves as an assistant scoutmaster for the troop.
Scoutmaster Tim Wilkinson said Weinbecker’s project was “wonderful,” and very timely. “This place has been in need of work for a while,” he said. “And it is great that it is in the Eagle Scout’s neighborhood.”
By Marcia Hodgson
Resident Community News
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