Friends of Jacksonville's Historic Cemetery
OUR REPORT CARD FOR 2022
WHILE WE LOOK AHEAD TO 2023, TAKE A MOMENT AND LOOK BACK AT ALL OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 2022
Our dedicated and loyal volunteers did an amazing job in supporting the goals of our non-profit organization in caring for the cemetery. In total they contributed 4,481 hours of labor for scheduled activities where volunteer hours are recorded....a 3-fold increase over the weather and pandemic-challenged prior year of 2021.
Grounds and Cemetery Maintenance - Thanks to our volunteers, those from other organizations, and the community-at-large, we were able to host three successful Community Clean-up Days, on March 26th, May 20th, and October 29th, 2022.
A total of 292 hours were contributed by 125 volunteers.
Note: Please check our Events Page for 2023 Community Clean-up dates and details.
Our Adopt-A-Block program, launched in March 2021, has continued to be a great success with some 200 volunteers signed on and regularly caring for their adopted cemetery blocks. They have contributed hundreds upon hundreds of hours in the process, and the cemetery grounds have never looked better. Volunteers in this program work at their own pace, when and as often as they choose, with no pressure of being in the cemetery on a certain day or time or having to keep track of their hours. Our goal has been to keep the program as simple and attractive as possible. Therefore, none of the time contributed by volunteers in the Adopt-A-Block program is reflected or included in the total number of hours noted above or below.
Additional time was spent on General Cemetery Maintenance, caring for the grounds in areas not adopted by individuals, cleaning and maintaining the Interpretive Panels, the Interpretive Center, the Cemetery Map and Pavilion, as well as restocking cemetery brochures, and cleaning and restocking the Volunteer Tool Room. A group of volunteers also placed over 400 flags for Memorial Day and removed them following Veterans Day. Approximately 955 hours of volunteer time went into helping to care for the cemetery grounds in the activities noted above.
Marker Restoration - Two major restoration projects were completed this past year, and a third was well under way by year-end. The Love block (Masonic section) and McClain block (City section) were totally restored. The Pape/Prim block (Masonic section), also a total restoration, is expected to complete in 2023. Monuments, curbing, steps, and bollards were all removed and reinstalled, and everything was leveled and secured in place.
Volunteers also restored the tall column of the White block (Masonic section), which was found broken into three pieces several years ago. The cross atop the alter (Catholic section) was restored, and a headstone was purchased and placed on the grave of Frederick Grob (Independent German Order of Red Men section), the only known Civil War Era veteran in the Jacksonville Historic Cemetery to not have a headstone.
A total of 350 hours of volunteer time was directed to restoration work in the cemetery. Note: If you would be interested in learning and helping us with this type of volunteer work, please contact us at: info@friendsjvillecemetery.org.
Marker Cleaning Workshops - We hosted 5 workshops in 2022, up from only four the prior year due to the virus and weather. Our volunteers cleaned 150 headstones and monuments (vs 114 the prior year), while contributing 196 hours in volunteer labor (up from 164 hours in 2021). Since these workshops began in 2013, volunteers have cleaned 1,219 markers and contributed 1,729 volunteer hours - a very impressive endeavor and one appreciated even more so as you walk the cemetery grounds
Note: Be sure to check our Events Page for Workshop dates for 2023.
Honoring our Veterans - Each year the Friends of Jacksonville's Historic Cemetery purchase flags to be placed on each grave site of the Veterans who rest within our cemetery. Volunteers place the flags just before Memorial Day and then remove them in November following Veterans Day. There are over 400 Veterans resting within the cemetery grounds.
Note: Volunteer hours are included under Grounds and Cemetery Maintenance.
History Events and Tours - With better weather and the easing of virus restrictions, we again offered a full slate of History Saturday in the Cemetery programs in 2022 on five Saturday mornings from May through September.
Note: See our Events Page for 2023 dates and details.
Our docents also conducted Guided Tours for school groups, a home schoolers group, the Porsche Car Club of Bend, and the McKee Bridge Historical Society. Volunteers and docents logged nearly 100 hours of volunteer time in presenting these programs to 253 guests.
And... after a two-year pandemic-driven hiatus, and with a "small army of volunteers", we were once again able to offer our Meet the Pioneers living history tours on two evenings in October. Tickets for the twenty-two tours sold out in less than two weeks time, and the players, researchers, and support staff contributed nearly 2,588 volunteer hours to animate the voices of fourteen of our town's pioneers who told their stories to nearly four hundred visitors. Meet the Pioneers 2022 raised over $6,500 for cemetery restoration and educational programs.
Additional Projects in 2022
Cemetery Buildings, New and Restored - Our volunteers, with help from the City of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Boosters Club and Foundation, purchased, installed, and painted a much-needed Storage Shed, including rain gutters and shelving, adjacent to the Cemetery Maintenance Shops in the northeast corner of the cemetery. In addition, the Volunteers' Tool House received a new workbench, new lighting, and interior paint. Thanks to a generous donor, our outdoor Pavilion, which is adjacent to the Interpretive Center and houses our Cemetery Map, was cleaned and stained professionally.
Story Boards - With the help of funding from the Jacksonville Boosters Foundation, we were able to complete the installation of eleven stanchion-mounted Story Boards at the individual or family grave sites of some of Jacksonville's early pioneers. Researched and prepared by our volunteers, the text provides visitors with a brief history of the individual or family buried in the block. Most include a historical photograph. Placement of additional Story Boards is planned for the near future.
Cemetery Outreach - During 2022, the Friends conducted Marker Restoration Workshops for both the City of Central Point (IOOF Cemetery) and the City of Medford (IOOF Eastwood Cemetery) at their respective locations and shared information about our volunteer-driven Adopt-a-Block on-going cemetery maintenance program.