Volunteers working to uncover burial sites at College Park cemetery during Veterans Day event
On Veterans Day, the One Square Mile Project is hosting a special event to honor those who served at College View Cemetery. While the group plans to recognize veterans, they're soliciting help from volunteers to uncover burial sites of those who've been laid to rest at the cemetery.
"We want people to come out and get engaged in what we are doing because it is necessary. This grave site has been here for almost 130 years, and it is time for these people to be honored and their dignity replaced," said community leader Gloria Robinson-Abdullah.
Earlier this year, volunteers began a community-wide mission to uncover the graves of those buried there. They uncovered multiple areas, but brush and overgrown trees cover many more.
Leaders said they've already uncovered many graves, including a few burial sites of World War I veterans.
College Park resident Ercell Brown comes out on Saturdays to lend a helping hand during the cleanup. She said she's anticipating the day the group finally finds her family's graves.
"My mother Lodi Miller, my grandmother Alice Hunt, my grandfather Eugene Hunt, and my brother Claude Miller are there," Brown said.
"I have a picture of their headstones that are broken, but I know what they look like, so that is what we are looking for: those markers," she added.
She said everyone lived together in the same house, and living together strengthened their familial bond.
"You see, back in the day, that's the way it was. Everybody lived together," she said.
The One Square Mile Project hosted a special event in October that allowed people from the community inside the cemetery for the first time in decades to search for their loved ones' final resting places.
"People have not seen their loved ones' grave sites in decades, and just to see them walk the cemetery and walk up to the grave site and pay homage to their loved ones was just phenomenal," Robinson-Abdullah said.
Hundreds of people from College Park and surrounding cities showed. Officials said several found their loved ones' gravesites.
"A month or so ago, we had a gentleman come in all the way from Virginia because he heard about what we were doing on social media, so he flew in. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to find his loved ones' grave, but as we continue to clear off these lots, I'm sure we will find more and more people," Robinson-Abdullah said.
The College View Cemetery is located behind Mount Calvary Baptist Church at 2044 J.T. Alexander Avenue in College Park. The event is scheduled for Nov. 11th from 9 a.m. until noon.
