Thank You and Sincere Appreciation from the Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery To: The teachers and students from Central Medford High School who paid it forward and spent two mornings, September 26 and 27, cleaning up the grounds in the Masonic Section and cleaning headstones in the Catholic Section of the cemetery. Our docents, Anne Peugh, Lynn Ransford, Dee Reynar, Dianne Helmer, Vivienne Grant and Pam Smith presented a wonderful two hour talk and tour for the group on September 13, and in appreciation they provided us with some community service time. The students, with the help of their teachers, are working on their own version of “Meet the Pioneers” and we have been providing a little assistance. The students were also in attendance during our September 25 dress rehearsal.

Thanks to all of our community volunteers who showed up for our Fall Clean-up Day on September 29, and for the amazing job that you all did. A special thank you to Ellie Scurlock, a student at Madrone Trail Public Charter School for forming an outreach program and helping with our clean-up day. I, as well as our other volunteers all agreed, it was wonderful to have all those young people helping to fill bags with leaves!

Our amazing and talented cast of “Meet the Pioneers” who entertained our audiences on October 5 and 6. Those who attended had nothing but the highest praise for the performances that were presented. Despite a very rainy Friday, our first in 12 years, and a beautiful Saturday, everything worked like clockwork thanks to the dedication and hard work of our volunteers who turned the cemetery and the D Street parking lot into a tent city for the two days. Brian Nicholson, who played the Reverend Thomas Fletcher Royal, got in the spirit and held as he called it, “A Tent Revival” and passed the hat! I have said many times that it takes a village to put this program on each year and that village made it happen once again. As we are still in the stage of cleaning up and finalizing numbers there will be more to share in the December Jacksonville Review.

Again, thank you for all that you did and for making this such a special place to call home.

Dirk

Featured image: Student Group at September 29, 2018, Community Clean-up Day. Photo by Mary Siedlecki.