LANGLEY — Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregations from throughout Snohomish and Island counties spent Sept. 13 cleaning up cemeteries, parks and schools as part of the “Day of Service.”
The south Whidbey Island ward worked on the Bayview Cemetery near Freeland, said Frank Thornton, 79.
About 60 people helped, more than a dozen of them from outside the church, he said. The American Legion Post 141 was involved, because so many of the graves at the cemetery belong to veterans.
To generate interest before the project, church members distributed fliers at “every bulletin board we could find between here and Greenbank,” he said.
They cleared weeds and overgrown grass from graves and walkways and pressure-washed monuments and headstones.
“So you could actually see the names and dates that were there,” Thornton said. “A lot of those had, over the years out in the elements here in the great Pacific Northwest, become just moldy and moss covered and we were able to shine those up.”
In Arlington, more than 50 volunteers met at the Old Town Wetland Park and Eagle Trail on the south bank of the Stillaguamish River near Haller Park. Troy Davis, a church member and the city’s associate planner, made the suggestion.
Mostly, they cleaned up debris left from homeless camps, said Nicole Roskelley, 39.
“We filled up several dozen trash bags,” she said. “We’re talking the weirdest things ever … tires, baskets, clothes, rubber hoses, old TVs.”
Still, she said, it was a good experience for folks to do something small, to make something better.
The Snohomish ward cleaned up at Riverview Elementary on Fobes Hill, said Kristine Christensen, president of the women’s Relief Society.
More than 100 people volunteered.
“We were mowing and edging and pruning and cleaning out the plant beds and cutting bushes back,” she said. “It was great fun. It was a beautiful day.”
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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