March 7 work day

We worked 3+ hours at East End this morning. We had 11 volunteers – 5 community members and 6 core team. We continued clearing ivy and other ground cover off of plots and cut ivy off of trees. We cut up some fallen trees and checked out our lawn mowers and other equipment to make sure they are ready to tackle the growing season that is just around the corner.

Feb. 29 work day

On a chilly afternoon we had 18 volunteers at East End Cemetery today. Besides 7 core team members, we had 5 volunteers from VCU Theta Tau, 3 from VCU Med sociology class and 3 community members. We worked at clearing English ivy off the ground and off trees. We also dug out and cleaned off 2 gravestones. It was a productive afternoon. We also had 2 visitors.

Feb. 22 work day

We worked 3+ hours at End End Cemetery this morning. We had 56 volunteers including folks from Henrico NAACP, VCU ASPiRE, VCU Delta Epsilon Mu and VCU Sigma Phi Epsilon. We also had several community members and 5 core team members. We worked at clearing ground cover in a few areas we hadn’t worked before. We also cut ivy off of trees and hauled off a couple small fallen trees. We found and cleaned off 2 gravestones. Toward the end of our work time we had 2 visitors.

Feb. 15 work day

We worked 3+ hours at East End this morning. We had 9 volunteers. We continued picking up fallen branches and clearing ground cover. We are trying to get GPS coordinates for all grave markers at the cemetery. We got a few coordinates today so have a little over a 100 out of 3200 to find and get coordinates for yet. As we were wrapping up, we had a family member visit and we were able to show them family graves.

Feb. 8 work day

We had a busy and productive morning at East End Cemetery. We had 20 volunteers including 5 from Wounded Warrior Project, 2 University of Richmond students, 5 community members, my nephew and 7 core team members. With all the wind yesterday, we had about a dozen trees down or leaning and lots of fallen limbs and sticks to pick up. We got some of the downed trees cut up and hauled to the dumpster. At the end of the morning our empty dumpster was almost full. We also did some clearing of ground cover and found one new grave marker.

Feb. 1 work day

We worked at East End for 3+ hours this morning. We had 27 volunteers including 12 from Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity at University of Richmond, 6 other University of Richmond volunteers, 3 community members and 6 core team. We continued clearing ground cover, hauled cut up fallen trees to the brush pile and hauled tires to front of the cemetery so they can be disposed of. Some UR students recorded GPS coordinates. We uncovered and cleaned 2 gravestones and found 1 gravestone that we had missed recording. We also had 2 reporters visit us, one from channel 12 and one from channel 6. They should be airing stories tonight at 6 p.m.

Also special thanks tor the folks from Henrico Public Works who were out there today picking up and hauling off all the brush piles created during the MLK day clean up.

Jan. 25 work day

We worked about 3 hours this morning at East End Cemetery. We had 2 returning community members and 6 core members. We continued to clear summer growth from around the gravestones, we cut down a poison ivy covered dead tree and at the end of the day, as we were wrapping up, found 3 gravestones. It was a productive morning. We also had a family member who came to visit his grandmother’s grave.

Jan. 20 MLK day of service

We had a really great Day of Service at East End Cemetery today with two shifts of volunteers. In spite of a wind chill in the teens in the morning we had over 40 volunteers for the morning shift. The afternoon shift had over 85 volunteers. Both shifts cleared ground vegetation, but ivy off of trees and removed fallen limbs. The areas worked on look really good now. The second shift also found and cleaned off 2 gravestones.

Our thanks to everyone who braved the cold and came out to help clean up and restore this historic cemetery.

Jan. 18 work day

We worked 3+ chilly, sleety hours at East End this morning. We continued clearing ivy, cutting up fallen trees and found 1 gravestone. We also made some preparations for the big MLK Day day of service at East End. We had 1 community member and 8 core team members.

Jan. 11 work day

We work about 3 hours at East End cemetery this morning. He had 11 volunteers including 4 community members, 3 of whom volunteered for the first time at the cemetery. We cleared ivy off the ground and off the trees and cut up dead trees. We also found 4 gravestones.