Bridgewater Cemetery Restoration
Layla, a Junior Girl Scout from Mars Hill, knows that Maine communities are rich in history that spans hundreds of years. That’s why she participated in a community service project aimed at cleaning up a cemetery. Layla found the experience to be so rewarding that she decided to focus her Bronze Award project on cemetery restoration, too!
With a little help from her mom and a local community-member, Layla hatched a plan.
“It was so satisfying. After that, my mom helped me to work with a local professor who is doing a county-wide cemetery restoration project,” says Layla.
Thanks to the professor's insight, Layla learned several new skills for properly preserving historical gravesites, particularly putting her energy into the Boundary Cemetery in Bridgewater.
“I learned how to properly clean the headstones, map them using a GPS, and record information on the stones to assist in the project,” says Layla.
Now, Layla has made a simple and fast way to alert local committees when certain headstones need repair or cleanup.
Layla hopes that her project will only leave a positive impact on the current Bridgewater community but future generations to come too, as she has plans to begin a headstone archiving system that can be accessed publicly through the web!
