By Deborah Sturgill

It began last year when I received an e-mail from a stranger asking for a photo of her relative’s headstone, located in the Washington Cemetery in Raymond. I, a genealogist and avid headstone hunter, grabbed my phone and my North County Cemeteries/Pacific County Washington book, from the Pacific County Historical Society & Museum. It lists 38 cemeteries; Fern Hill/Menlo has its own book.

I drove out the Monohon Road and turned onto the Washington Cemetery Road. As I recalled, this cemetery was divided by the road. My recollection proved to be incorrect as I opened my book and discovered there are three cemeteries at this location. The Washington Cemetery is on the left side of the road, and the Riverside and FOE 1631 cemeteries are on the right. Only the FOE Cemetery had any identification, but it was a small stone located inside the cemetery.

All three were completely overgrown and even the tall headstones were barely visible. I couldn’t do this alone. I decided to write a Thrivent grant. The Thrivent Choice charitable grant program allows Thrivent members and Thrivent Member Networks to request $250 per project, to participate in a charitable activity.

I attend First Lutheran Church of South Bend, and our pastor, Dale Larson, thought this would be a great project for National Make a Difference Day, an annual community service event held on the fourth Saturday in October. First Lutheran Church’s AmeriCorps volunteer, Tina Kebow, gathered the nine Pacific County AmeriCorps workers to join in making a difference.

Imagine our surprise when we gathered at the cemetery and discovered that someone or some group had already cut back all the tall grass. We decided to clean and document headstones. We found all but four of the headstones listed in the book and had a great time. Now, we had to decide how to spend the grant money to best help the project. It was decided that a sign for the Riverside Cemetery would help end the confusion.

I called Coastline Sign in Aberdeen and spoke to the manager, Scott Lowe. I told him our story and that we only had $250. He loved the project and volunteered to pitch in the rest of the money for the sign we wanted.

He also volunteered to send out his crew to install the sign. All I needed to do was bring two pressure-treated 4-by-4s. I asked Bud’s Lumber about a discount for our project, and they donated the posts.

On Jan. 15, the sign was installed by two awesome guys from Coastline. After the sign was installed AmeriCorps volunteers Tina Kebow and Matthew Shirley, and I walked the cemetery and found that the winter weather had made it possible to find the four graves we had missed before, but this was just the beginning of our excitement. We discovered five graves that weren’t listed in the cemetery book.

We aren’t finished with this cemetery; we will be doing more searching when the rain eases. But for now, I am so thankful for all those that volunteered money, time and vision to make this happen.

The AmeriCorps volunteers who “helped make a difference” at the Riverside Cemetery. Back row, from left: Matthew Shirley and Travis Winn. Middle row: Heidi Underhill, Mackenzie Trotter, Tina Kebow and Michelle Monroe (holding Spike). Front row: Poppy, Mercedes Lamphier and neighbor’s dog visiting cemetery. Not pictured: Myranda Curtis. (Deborah Sturgill)