SCG, I wish you luck, and hope you accomplish great things. While there are some "in perpetuity" cemeteries here, which means the price of perpetual care was built into the cost of the plot, most are not. Many of the older ones had gotten so run down, and because of vandals were in such disarray. Several years ago, a few people got together to form a committee to address the problems. They began putting up signs about who to call to give donations, whether money, or equipment, and posted a work day a couple months away. They called all the local churches, and the churches put it in their bulletins. They got it organized, and on the first work day, there were members of the families buried in there, girl scout troops, boy scout troops, and several other community type groups involved. The local equipment rental place donated some equipment to help with getting the toppled headstones put back in place, and pressure washing equipment. It was impressive how people turned out, and what was accomplished in just one work day. It was mowed, weeded, all the trash hauled off, headstones set back where they belonged, some of the headstones were pressure washed.
It was decided a fence was needed, and no donation too small. One of the fence companies agreed to put the fence in at cost. Within 6 months enough money was raised that the new fence was put up. The county put in a couple street lights along one side, which helped with the vandalism problem. At least one of the cemeteries had no water, so it took a little over a year to raise the funds for a well to be put in. All the while, they continued with 2 work days a year. None of these things happened over night, but over the past few years, the change has been amazing, and the cemetery is, once again, a safe, nice place to go.
