Storm delays Edgewood Cemetery cleanup, but not events

POTTSTOWN — The community cleanup for Edgewood Cemetery originally scheduled for Sept. 23 has been moved to Sept. 30 from 9 to 11 a.m. due to the arrival of Tropical Storm Ophelia.

The cleanup is just one of the many things going on at the cemetery in the coming weeks.

On Saturday, Oct. 7, the “Walk to Remember” living history tours with costumed re-enactors and interpreters who will share fascinating stories about some of Edgewood’s 3,000 most prominent residents, from a famous woman social activist to Civil War generals will be conducted.

The Walk to Remember tour is a family-friendly fundraiser. All Edgewood grounds mowing and maintenance depends upon the generosity of donors and events like this planned by a small band of volunteers.

Interest in “A Walk to Remember” has been high, with two of the three tour time slots quickly sold out.  However, tickets remain available for the 1:45 tour. You can reserve your spot at https://givebutter.com/WalkingTour-1-45PM or by contacting Kelly Fenstermacher, the researcher and volunteer who has organized this effort, at 610-506-7033 or email at kelly@historicedgewood.com.

Refreshments will be served. Sodexo at The Hill School donated the treats.

To help prepare for the tour, volunteers are encouraged to pitch in with tombstone cleaning on Saturday, Sept. 30, from 9 to 11 a.m., at the Cemetery at 989 E. High St.

Participants will learn the process that helps restore dirty headstones. Supplies will be provided. Volunteers are encouraged to wear old clothing. The Edgewood friends thank Home Depot, Lowes, and Tractor Supply of Pottstown for donating supplies. Civic, church, and scouting groups are welcome.

The Cemetery also will hold another community cleanup from 10 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21 (raindate Oct. 28). Tools and gloves will be provided (volunteers who can bring weed-whackers or small mowers and saws will be appreciated.)

Recently afternoon community service students from The Hill School helped to get a head start on cleaning headstones and met with Shona Levy of Hearts of Humanity Community Development to weed the pollinator garden her organization planted on the cemetery grounds.

Preparations recently began to reset the sunken and toppled gravestones for the Rowland family site; the Eppenhiemers’ plot; and Joanna Hertzel Saylor, with heavy lifting provided by Pottstown Burial Vault. The existing stones had to be moved or dug out of the ground to prepare for new foundations to be poured before the bases and stones can be reinstalled.

All of this work is funded through Edgewood’s “Adopt-a-Gravestone” program created to address the headstone toppling and sinking of many plots due to the natural passage of time, early and less stable burial methods, and the cemetery’s serious groundhog-related destruction problem.

Edgewood is working to address the rodent issue (and the dangerous holes they have created) through a company that professionally and humanely traps and then re-homes the groundhogs.  Individuals who would like to help with Adopt-a-Gravestone may contact Kelly Fenstermacher (call or text) at 610-506-7033 or go to https://givebutter.com/adoptagravestone to donate directly.

The volunteers also plan to soon sell three-quarter length-sleeved T-shirts.  The shirts will sell for $20 each (slightly more for 2XL and 3XL) and feature the Edgewood logo on the front as well as a bold image on the back of “Eddie Edgewood,” the hawk who makes his home in the cemetery’s trees, beautifully drawn by volunteer Jess Grater. To learn how to purchase a shirt, contact Cathy Skitko at 610-705-1017 or cathy@hobartsrunpottstown.org.  All proceeds benefit the mowing fund.

Caring for the 12-acre cemetery runs close to $20,000 a year. Unfortunately, Edgewood’s caretaker abandoned the cemetery in 2012, and Borough funds are not provided for its maintenance. The grounds soon became overgrown — until volunteers joined forces with Hobart’s Run, a community outreach and revitalization nonprofit founded by The Hill School, to find ways to collaborate, fund, and restore this resting place.