It's a wonderful experience to walk through the North East Cemetery.  It's quiet.  It's peaceful, and it's quite beautiful.  But, there are gravestones that are weather-worn and need to be cleaned.

That's where Daryl Kidder and Carolyn McIntosh come in.  They are a volunteer committee of two that comes out to the cemetery with pails, brushes, and a special cleaning solution.  They scrub gravestones to remove, mold, moss, and mildew.  They want to make the stones beautiful again. Why do they do it?  To them, this cemetery is a special place.

"Anybody that walks around the cemetery and sees these beautiful stones and the beautiful trees, you just fall in love with the place,” says Daryl.

Daryl and Carolyn have done wonders with some of the gravestones that were darkened by age and by nature. The before and after photographs are remarkable. What were once unsightly and discolored, are now dignified and bright. The stories etched on the stones can once again be seen and learned.

"I'm so curious,” says Daryl.  “Like, who is that person? When did they live and what's the story? There's so much of their history on that stone and the stones beside them."   

No pun intended, but Daryl and Carolyn have decided to kill two birds with one stone.  They decided to turn their gravestone cleaning work into a fund raising campaign for the North East Cemetery Chapel.  The chapel is another piece of history at the cemetery. It was built in 1888 and was used to host viewing and religious services before funeral homes became popular.  During those times, the building was even a place to store the deceased who sometimes waited months to be buried.

"In the winter you would often have several bodies that you would have to store,” says Dick Tefft, of the North East Cemetery Association. “You were digging by hand.  You could not dig in the frozen ground."

Daryl and Carolyn are asking for a $25 donation for a gravestone cleaning with proceeds going to a renovation project for the chapel. People can make a donation and ask that a relative's gravestone be cleaned. Or, they can make a donation and have any stone cleaned.

"I tend to lean towards the children, the infants, or the mothers who died in childbirth,” says Daryl. “Or Civil War veterans.  Or just something I don't know what it is but I know it's old.  So, it's kind of fun picking out a grave."  

The grave cleaning campaign has begun.  It is hoped that the renovations to the chapel can begin next year.

Anyone interested in donating to the gravestone cleaning campaign can receive information by calling or texting 814-572-9024.  By the way, the oldest gravestone at the cemetery dates back to 1802.