On the cool morning of Friday, June 16, 2023, six Highland Springs Chapter Daughters gathered at the Pioneer Memorial Cemetery to fulfill our Service to America project goal. In keeping with the Wright Administration’s First Annual Service to America Project, our goal was to clean and help preserve the gravestones of Civil War veterans buried at the Cemetery, some of which were almost completely covered in dirt.

After selecting the gravestones to attend to for that day, we cleared the headstones of overgrown grass and dirt. We then sprayed the headstones with water, and applied D/2 Biological Solution and waited the required amount of time to let it soak in and start working. We then set to work using soft bristled brushes, wooden craft sticks and rags to remove as much of the centuries old dirt and dark residue as possible.

We cleaned 15 gravestones that day, and the results were truly gratifying! Before cleaning, much of the engraved names and dates could not be read, but with the use of D/2 and some elbow grease, the graves look so much better. By participating in this project, we were able to help the descendants of these veterans preserve the visible legacies of their family members’ service to our country and demonstrate what service to our veterans looks like.

We enjoyed it so much, we already have another date of service scheduled to clean the remaining Civil War veterans’ gravestones!

Photo from back to front: Glenda Page, Deborah Knowlton-Czarnecki, Cheryl Larick, Cheri Zuccarelli and Susan Lovelace.