Sunday, June 8, 2008

Eagle Scout Badge Project: The old tombsones

One of our parishioners, Josiah, headed up a project to document some of the oldest stones in Assumption Grotto's cemetary this past Saturday. This was done to earn his Eagle Scout badge. Fellow Boy Scouts worked in pairs going from stone to stone on those within a diagram made, wiping mud into the wording and attempting to read the weathered tombsones.

Of the targeted 160 old tombstones, most were documented. Some they struggled with due to weathering, and others due to language - Latin, Italian, Flemish, among others. This is a project the parish has wanted accomplished for some time, so it worked out well that the young man needed a leadership project perfectly suited for something the parish needed done. I got involved because I was asked to photograph the stones and will continue to do so in the coming weeks. Below are some pictures from the day.

In the first pic, Fr. Perrone stands with Josiah against the young man's personal favorite stone. In another pic below, you can see the effects of wiping mud into the lettering.










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