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Community cleans up cemetery
A community has rallied around a cemetery to help clean it up to it former state.
CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga - A Cherokee County woman has taken on a monumental task. She's trying to clean up a cemetery that is so overgrown with brush it's impossible to walk through.
Stefanie Summers said last weekend no one would even know there was a cemetery on Univetter Road in Canton. The weeds were taller than the sign at the entrance. She posted about it on social media and in no time, people stepped up to help.
"The cemetery is the world to me because my brother is there and my brother was my world," said Stefanie Summers.
Stefanie's brother, Evan, died in a motorcycle accident in 2006. He was 24 years old. Stefanie visited often.
"There are veterans, there are kids, farmers from all over Cherokee County back to the 1800s. There's so much history," said Stefanie.
The cemetery is owned by Shiloh Church across the street. A couple of women from the church kept up the grounds, but they passed away in 2011. With no one to care for the cemetery, weeds, brush, and trees took over. Stefanie said she just kept thinking it would get taken care of. Instead, it continued to deteriorate and she gave up hope.
When the weeds were so thick that she could no longer even get to the gate, Stefanie posted about it on Facebook. Almost immediately, people volunteered to help. One man came the next day and cleared the brush from her brother's headstone.
"I literally fell into a chair and started sobbing because I hadn't seen my brother's headstone in six years," said Stefanie.
A 17-year-old young man spent every day this week clearing out the entrance while his younger siblings put flags out to mark the graves.
Stefanie has been overwhelmed by those who are helping but there's still a lot of work to do. Stefanie said once it is finally cleaned up, she wants to try to figure out how she can keep it that way.
"My goal is to not only restore it the best we can but to make sure it's maintained. If we just come and clean it up and walk away it will go right back to the state it was and that can't happen," said Stefanie.
There's a planned community clean-up for Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon.
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