Grove Restoration Project

The turn out for the September 16th clean up was a success. A lot of garbage was removed and everyone had a wonderful time meeting each other.

No more than a couple of weeks after the event the Forest Preserve District came out to remove the fallen trees on the main path leading to the cemetery. The Forest Preserve District also did some removal of weeds along the path which not only makes the area look nice but also gives visitors more room as they make their journey toward the cemetery. The main entrance to the path was taken care of as well and it looks better than it has in at least 10 years.

A special thank you goes out to the volunteers that showed up to help ensure a great success! But lets not forget the Real Estate Management Office of Cook County for their assistance. Without them, as well as their friends of the Forest Preserve District, we would all have a much harder time bringing back peace and harmony to the area.

Hello everyone! This years clean-up will be a little more relaxing than others. It will only consist of picking up trash left by visitors and no weeds or other items will be removed. This is primarily caused by a couple of trees that have fallen onto the pathway as well as a couple of others that have caused damage to the fence surrounding the cemetery. All of these trees will need to be removed by the Forest Preserve District because we don’t have permission. But we can still use this opportunity to make a difference! You will want to bring a pair of gloves and a few heavy duty trash bags. There will be a small number of gloves available to those who don’t have any so please bring a pair if you can. Please don’t bring any other items for this particular date as they won’t be needed.

For those of you attending please remember that you must sign a waiver if you wish to participate. If you are under the age of 18 please review the section on becoming a volunteer. If you have any questions please feel free to email a coordinator.

A permit to help clean up the cemetery has been issued for September 16th 2007. The time frame that has been granted is between 8 AM and 4 PM. Details on what volunteers may want to bring and any other relevant information will be announced shortly.

We apologize for the short notice and look forward to meeting everyone!

Due to current weather conditions the September 23rd clean-up will need to be canceled. The thunderstorms expected to pass through the area will cause the cemetery to become saturated in too much water making the removal of weeds very difficult.

There are no other clean-ups expected for 2006. We appreciate all of you that have emailed in regards to the 23rd and we hope to see you all in 2007!

A permit to help clean up the cemetery has been issued for September 23rd 2006. The time frame that has been granted is between 8 AM and 4 PM. Details on what volunteers may want to bring and any other relevant information will be announced shortly.

The turn out for the September 9th clean-up was excellent. No thunderstorms came through while all the volunteers worked hard and made more improvements to the cemetery. A member of the Newman family had come to help out as well and expressed a warm appreciation for those who came to help take care of her departed ones. All of the volunteers should feel very proud of themselves! Besides the enjoyment of doing something good for a place that has been severely neglected, many facets of nature were experienced such as frogs, toads, humming birds, deer, snakes, mice, and even a very large, colorful, beautiful spider that is rarely seen showed itself as the weeds were trimmed.

Although the cemetery still has a long way to go it was extremely wonderful to see so many people show up in the early morning hours. A lot was accomplished early in the day and if it wasn’t for a piece of rental equipment breaking down much more could have been taken care of. A special thank you goes out to those of you who attended and to those of you who truly wanted to make it but couldn’t due to various circumstances.

We hope to see all of you again next year and welcome many more volunteers to join in and help make every clean-up a success. Also, be sure to review some of the improvements by visiting the photo gallery. We can always use a dedicated photographer to go around and take countless photographs so don’t be shy and volunteer today!