Energetic church volunteers lead cleanup at Jackson's Hankinson Street Cemetery

Effort included documentation of names at Jackson Memorial Park

JACKSON -- "Rest in peace" was a remote concept around Hankinson Street for much of Friday, courtesy of several dozen volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This was a peaceful crowd, but without much resting until mid-afternoon. The youthful crowd from throughout the CSRA removed truckloads of branches, leaves and litter from an old cemetery that was created more than 50 years ago, when the Savannah River Plant's establishment forced the moving of several cemeteries and entire communities.

Jackson Memorial Park, a cemetery next to the one being cleaned, also got plenty of attention, with a documentation of the names and dates on the various markers. Plans are to publish the information for local citizens' use and post it on the Internet, in keeping with the Mormons' strong interest in family history.

"You don't know how many times the elderly people have asked for something of this type work to be done," said Todd Etheredge, a member of Jackson's town council. "This is like a prayer answered -- them showing up today and donating their time in this heat, to really clean these old gravesites."

Aiken resident Gene Hart, 17, explained, "It's been overgrown and not kept up very well, so we're going to hopefully clean it out and keep it nice."

The church has a Boy Scout troop, so Friday's project could easily lead to service work for that group as well, he noted.

Dealing with the heat, around 100 degrees, was a definite challenge, said Aiken resident Marianne Novak, 16. She pointed out that she and her peers accept a variety of service opportunities throughout the year, similar to those offered through Boy Scouts.

Programs for young women, Marianne noted, often focus on the basics of good motherhood, "so we work on a lot of service and leadership responsibilities."

Evans neighbors Abby Hatch, 15, and Heather Carlson, 14, agreed on another perspective: "We just came out here so we could do service for other people, and try to help out the environment some more," in Abby's words.

Project co-organizer David Carlsen, of Harlem, Ga., added, "As a church, we're interested in genealogy a lot, so we want to move that forward, too. That's part of our effort."

Etheredge said the LDS group was looking for a good opportunity for a service project in recent weeks, and Posey Funeral Home recommended the Jackson site as worthy of attention. Town leaders endorsed the idea, and several of them joined the effort, adding muscle and expertise.

"This is just a ... [remainder of article to be added when a complete copy is available].

[The Aiken Standard made the following additioinal photos available for use on this site:]

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