SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – The historical Rock Creek Cemetery is getting freshened up on Sunday, when members and volunteers in Menard County come to together to clean gravestones, make improvements, and other things. Gina Gillmore-Wolter and Paul Golladay, the organizers of Rock Creek Cemetery clean-up, were guest on the WTAX Morning Newswatch to discuss the event that is coming up this Sunday.
“This is an incredibly historic cemetery with numerous military veterans buried there. And so, as president of the New Salem Lincoln League, it falls within our mission statement to help preserve that,” said Wolter.
Golladay has become an expert in cleaning up cemeteries and headstones specifically.
“I hadn’t been out to Rock Creek Cemetery for a while until Gina reached out, so I made a drive out there and quickly noticed that it is like many historic cemeteries throughout central Illinois — heck, throughout the United States,” said Golladay. ”Just years of dirt and lichen and mold growing on historic headstones. So, my group, I operate a small non-for-profit out of Springfield where we specialize in cleaning headstones of our military veterans.”
Anyone wanting to help is asked to show up at the cemetery starting at 11:00 a.m. Sunday.
