Paying respects: Volunteers turn out to tidy up veterans’ gravesites at City Cemetery

NEARLY 200 VOLUNTEERS of all ages gathered at Benicia City Cemetery on Saturday to help clean up veterans’ gravesites and other areas.
Photos courtesy Ashley Howe/City of Benicia

Ashley Howe, Benicia city recreation supervisor, said a few weeks ago she wanted to take on a community service project.

She contacted several organizations and formed a committee to plan a cleanup of Benicia City Cemetery.

She hoped to have it done by Veterans Day, knowing that some Benicians would travel to the municipal cemetery to pay their respects to the veterans buried there.

Then she put out a call for volunteers, hoping at least 60 Benicians would be interested in donating their time.

“We were overwhelmed by the community,” she said. By the time people gathered Saturday morning to start the task, she had 180 ready to get to work.

Howe already had heard from Valero Benicia Refinery, the Benicia Youth Commission, Benicia High School’s Key Club, SClub, BlockB and Interact clubs and members of the Parks and Community Services staff.

Then she heard from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who called her up and said, “We have 100 volunteers.”

They actually had more, winning the “Volunteer Challenge” for having the largest participating group.

Most brought their own equipment — rakes and gloves in particular. Parks Division vehicles transported garbage and debris away, and Valero brought more gloves as well as safety glasses, Howe said.

The effort got more help from the Benicia Police Officers Association, United Site Services, Republic Services, Pacific Pizza, Round Table Pizza and Napoli Pizza, which gave money, products and food for the volunteers.

By the time the workers were done at 1 p.m. Saturday, they had removed 150 cubic yards of leaves and trash, spread 100 cubic yards of mulch, pruned the cemetery’s rose brushes, cleaned headstones, reworked a display case and placed flags on the veterans’ graves, Howe said.

In addition, the volunteers painted department trash cans, which had been brown. Now they’re a gleaming green.

Howe thanked the volunteers, of course, but also thanked her planning committee and the Parks and Community Services Department for getting the project organized.

Though this is the first year for the cemetery cleanup, Howe said she hopes it will be one of many. “My goal is to have it every year,” she said.