Volunteers, businesses honor vets by cleaning up graves at NFM historic cemetery

Veterans Day is in a few days and several volunteers and businesses are joining together through a platform called “Honor Your DNA:” an initiative to clean up historic cemeteries.

The goal is to keep headstones clean so we can honor the ones who were laid to rest and with Veterans Day around the corner, it’s important to highlight the eight veterans in the New Prospect Cemetery.

They served in the Indian War, Civil War, Korean War and also WWII.

By paying tribute to those, organizations and volunteers will clean and decorate headstones with flowers and American flags Saturday morning.

The cemetery is filled with greenery, but sometimes trees can overgrow and hide headstones.

The founder of “Honor Your DNA” says it just takes one person to start a cleanup.

“Every cemetery has to be maintained every week, from the grounds being mowed, trees trimmed, headstones need to be cleaned,” said Trae Zipperer. “So what happens is a cemetery becomes a mess until somebody comes along and says, ‘Hey, let’s clean it up.'”

Just a few weeks ago, organizations and volunteers helped renew and honor the people who have passed and now lay to rest at the cemetery.

That makeover will be completed Saturday by adding a few more touches to the stones.

The plan is to clean headstones, add flowers and American flags for the eight veterans buried in there.

We may not know the people buried in this cemetery, but each person has a story.

One volunteer said she would want the same thing to be done for her in her loved ones.

“Don’t we want to be remembered when we pass on? I’m sure we do, and it may be in a different way, but this is the way they were remembered in their time,” she said.

Anyone can join in on this initiative. So if you’re interested in helping to honor the veterans buried in this historic cemetery, the cleanup begins at 9 a.m.

The New Prospect Cemetery is located on Bayline Drive off of Bayshore Road in North Fort Myers.