CARBONDALE -- A rundown cemetery in Lackawanna County is getting spruced up, thanks to volunteers.
Earlier this week, we told you about Maplewood Cemetery in Carbondale and its deplorable condition, but its caretakers didn't have the money to upright hundreds of toppled tombstones. Since our story, dozens of people have come forward offering to help the cemetery.
Maplewood Cemetery in Carbondale is a historic place. The founders of Carbondale and some of the earliest families in Lackawanna County are buried there, but the cemetery's endowment that was set up in the 1830s doesn't provide enough money for the repairs.
Of the 7,000 graves at Maplewood Cemetery, a few hundred are toppled over by natural or other forces.
"It's a disaster, hoodlums. I don't even know who would do that," said contractor Joseph Brennan.
Brennan lives in Carbondale but first saw the damage on the WNEP Facebook page.
He gave his employees a new assignment. Brennan's excavating business will be there for the next few days doing the heavy lifting the cemetery has needed for decades, working to upright as many stones as they can, fill in some holes, and level parts of the property.
"Little bit at a time. Like I said, what you guys did, it helped. It seems like people are coming now and maybe it will get done," said David McAndrew of Carbondale.
Maplewood Cemetery's endowment fund pays for small things like cutting the grass before Memorial Day. The board that oversees the endowment says in the last few days they've gotten a lot of calls from folks willing to donate their time or their money.
"What we're asking people to do is just create their own little clean up where they can come in, choose the project they want to do, what their capable of doing, document it before and after, and send it back to us so we can publicize it and show people how working together we can make a difference," said cemetery board member Michele Bannon.
Bannon is one of the board members who oversee the cemetery. Groups have offered to pick up garbage and clean graffiti.
"Carbondale's great," said Bannon. "We're full of people who are very prideful."
Brennan would be reluctant to consider himself part of that group.
"I think more people should start doing it. We got to clean the town up, not keep letting it fall apart," said Brennan.
He and his employees, who are working for free this week, see the bigger picture.
"Any place is the place to start," Brennan said.
The Maplewood Cemetery board says they have their own clean up planned later on this month. Anyone who is interested in donating or helping is asked to call Carbondale City Hall.
