Hobart Cemetery Cleanup Service Project Helps Parish 

Members of the Hobart Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently spent a Saturday morning cleaning up the Snug Cemetery, which belongs to the St. Mary’s Parish of the Catholic Church.

Kevin Watson, leader of the men’s organization in the Hobart Ward, made the arrangements with Father Chris Hope, who was delighted with the offer to give the cemetery an overdue refurbishment.

The volunteers brought their own lawn mowers, whipper snippers, gardening tools, mattocks, and rakes.  Working in pairs, they pulled weeds, many of which had grown deep strong roots, levelled the soil, and then applied a layer of white dress rocks to the top of each grave.

After the graves had been tidied up, a photo was taken of each one and uploaded to the Billion Graves website as part of the project to digitize cemeteries around the world.

The cemetery caretaker, Mitchell Coleman, was very appreciative of the work done by the volunteers from the Church.   Without the extra help he received that day, he said, he would never have been able to bring the cemetery to pristine state it was in when Church members finished that day. 

“In fact, I would like to join you next year when you go to another cemetery to tidy it up.”

All participants enjoyed a barbecue lunch together after the hard work was done.