West Virginia National Cemetery hosts headstone cleaning event in honor of Patriot Day

GRAFTON, W.Va (WDTV) – As we remember those we’ve lost in the September 11th terrorist attack, it’s also a day to remember the men and women who have died for this country before and after 9/ll. on Wednesday, volunteers at the West Virginia National Cemetery in Grafton went above and beyond to ensure that honor.

“We just keep the headstones clean,” said Richard Colosky, the West Virginia National Cemetery Director. “We make sure we’re getting any type of objectional accumulation, and the big thing to keep them clean as if you don’t stay up on this, they can get algae or liken, and then eventually if they’re not taken care of properly, it ends up all black and you won’t even be able to read the names.”

Colosky explains a headstone-cleaning process. He and other staff joined volunteers today as part of the ‘Carry the Load’ initiative, which works to beautify headstones at 67 national cemeteries across the nation. This preserves the final resting place of those who paid the ultimate price for the United States of America.

“You have to be able to come in and read the veterans’ names, the veterans and the people who come to visit deserve that,” Colosky said. “This is not the only time these gravestones get cleaned, we clean these headstones twice a year. It’s the national standard for national cemeteries to keep these headstones clean. We go through assessments twice a year that grade the quality.”

The cemetery in Grafton has been taking part in ‘Carry the Load’ for a few years now, and this year it had one of its biggest crowds of volunteers. Most of the volunteers, and students, weren’t even alive at the time of the 9/11 attack or during wars for which these veterans fought. Even so, one student, Payden Moon told 5News that he’s all too familiar with the importance of remembering those who we’ve lost.

“A lot of my family members served in the military,” said Moon. “Grandpa, my mom’s stepdad, a real long line of military background. My great-grandpa survived Pearl Harbor. It means a lot to me to come out and show these graves of deceased individuals some respect.”

Moon and his peers cleaned over 1,800 headstones in under three hours.

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