1,200 Volunteers Clean Cemetery Honoring Medal of Honor Heroes

When Bellefonte high school students knelt beside century-old graves on Thursday, they weren't just pulling weeds. They were learning the names of Medal of Honor winners, Penn State founders, and the pioneers who built Centre County, Pennsylvania.

More than 1,200 volunteers gathered across Centre County for the United Way's annual Day of Caring. At Union Cemetery in Bellefonte, students worked alongside community members to clean gravesites and restore a final resting place that holds the region's most important history.

"There is so much history here," one organizer explained. The cemetery holds Medal of Honor winners, Penn State founders, and the people who established both Bellefonte and Centre County itself.

Close to 900 veterans are buried at Union Cemetery. For the high school students volunteering, the day became an unexpected history lesson about service and sacrifice.

"We just told them what the grapevine wreaths mean when they see them by a grave," a volunteer explained. "Now they know that's a person who died in the line of service."

The students came ready to work. "Just doing hard work, helping everyone out," one student said. "Learning about names here, what they're doing."

The Ripple Effect

This tradition of younger generations caring for older ones creates something deeper than clean pathways and trimmed grass. As one volunteer put it, the students are "understanding what it means to help the community, which nowadays, everybody needs in all communities."

The hands-on history lesson teaches respect in a way no textbook can. Students read names on weathered headstones, hear stories of bravery and vision, and connect their own lives to those who came before.

The cemetery cleanup represents just one project among many during the countywide Day of Caring. Across Centre County, volunteers tackled community needs while building connections across age groups and backgrounds.

Bellefonte students have joined this tradition for years now, creating a living link between past and present. They learn that everyone buried there mattered, from famous founders to everyday citizens who built their town.

Twelve hundred volunteers proved that caring for community history still matters to a new generation.