Cemetery restoration workshop scheduled for April 27

News

Tuesday, 16 April 2024 14:10

Have you ever wished you knew how to order a military headstone? Or wanted to know your rights when your family cemetery is located on private land or about to be plowed under for a new development? Have you wished that you could level a tombstone about to fall over, or put a broken stone back together, or clean one so dirty that it could barely be read?
This is your chance.
The Jackson County Historical Association and the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance are co-sponsoring the annual meeting of the Alliance at the Scottsboro Jackson Heritage Center on Saturday, April 27 from 8:30 until 4:00. Pre-registration ends April 20.

The morning meeting will be at the Heritage Center. Registration starts at 8:30 where you will receive your handouts and enjoy breakfast. The morning sessions will discuss how to hold a cemetery stroll, Alabama cemetery law, applying for military headstones, and repairing and maintaining headstones and monuments. During the morning break, Heritage Center personnel will be on hand to lead visitors on a tour of the buildings that make up Sagetown.

At noon, box lunches (either ham or turkey, chips, cookie, and drinks) from Subway are provided. Over lunch, the Cemetery Preservation Alliance will hold a short business meeting.

The afternoon meeting will be held at Cedar Hill Cemetery, less than a mile away, and will consist of a series of practicum workshops on headstone leveling and repair, with demonstrations of ground-penetrating radar and D2 cleaning. We will also hold a mini-cemetery stroll about 3:30 with presenters from our past strolls recreating their monologues for out-of-town visitors.

The cost of the workshop is $40 and includes breakfast and lunch at the Heritage Center, a mini-cemetery stroll at 3 p.m., and a year’s membership in the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance.

The sign up sheet for this workshop is available at the Scottsboro Public Library, the Heritage Center, and the Scottsboro Depot Museum. JCHA members received the sign up sheet as part of the most recent Chronicles. You can also download the sign up sheet here: https://www.alabama-cemetery-preservation.com/acpa_conference.php

You must pre-register by April 20 to attend this workshop and the deadline is coming up quickly. If you miss this date and still want to attend the workshop, contact Annette Bradford on Facebook, or write jcha@scottsboro.com.

The Cemetery Preservation Alliance is based in Montgomery and has been protecting and maintaining burial grounds for 22 years. The this meeting, the organization has assembled an exciting and informative program with presentations and demonstrations by highly experienced and sought-after professionals for their chosen topics.

For more information about this organization and its activities, see https://www.alabama-cemetery-preservation.com/.

Please note that registrations for the workshop must be received by Saturday, April 20, 2024, to ensure handout materials and a box lunch will be available for you. Also please note on the registration form that the board approved extending the policy of “free membership to first-time attendees” for the remainder of the calendar year.

“People call me asking questions about cemetery law, and I simply don’t have all the answers,” said Annette Bradford, editor of the JCHA quarterly newsletter. “Here is a chance to learn how to care for family graves and look after small cemeteries—and know your rights.”

“Members of the historical association and subscribers to the JCHA Facebook page have asked our organization for several years to set up headstone care and repair education,” Annette said.
“I had hoped we could find a two-hour workshop that would cover all the topics that members wanted to know about. But what we have set up is so much better. It is the annual meeting of the state cemetery preservation organization held in our county.”

This is a unique opportunity to receive authoritative and high quality cemetery care education, better than any workshop we could set up. Please take advantage of it.