Perinton VFW Seeks 100 Volunteers for Cemetery Restoration

In Perinton, New York, military history isn't just something you read about. It's something you can touch, restore, and bring back to life.

VFW Post 8495 is calling on their community to help restore nine local cemeteries on May 23, starting a five-year commitment to honor the forgotten. Jay Edgerton, senior vice commander, hopes at least 100 volunteers will join them to clean gravestones, reset toppled headstones, and restore landscaping that's been neglected for decades.

The project isn't just about veterans. Every grave in these nine cemeteries will get attention, from Revolutionary War soldiers to Civil War veterans to everyday community members whose families have long since moved away or passed on.

"A lot of these people do not have anybody in the area," Edgerton explained. By visiting twice a year to clean the stones and speak their names aloud, volunteers keep memories alive that might otherwise fade into moss and weathered granite.

The Day of Service will happen every May for the next four years, creating a sustainable tradition of remembrance. Volunteers can register online or donate to purchase cemetery-approved cleaning supplies that won't damage historic monuments.

Sunny's Take

There's something deeply moving about strangers choosing to care for graves that belong to no one they know. These volunteers aren't restoring headstones because they have to. They're doing it because history matters, because every life deserves to be remembered, and because speaking someone's name out loud keeps a piece of them alive in the world.

It's the kind of quiet, unglamorous work that says everything about who we want to be as communities.

If 100 people show up on May 23, they won't just be cleaning stone and pulling weeds. They'll be proving that no service, no life, no sacrifice gets forgotten as long as good people are willing to remember.