If you are interested in historic cemeteries, preservation, local history, or just being outdoors, consider participating in the upcoming Cemetery Preservation Workshop at the historic Ruff Family Cemetery. As you may remember, our Friends of the Concord Covered Bridge group recently adopted this cemetery inside our historic district for care and upkeep. In 2019 we had preservationist Ashley Shares come out and assess what work needed to be done in the cemetery. She did a great job photographing the issues and putting together recommendations and quotes for our group. But she pointed out that most of the work was quite minor in scope and could be handled by our group with proper training. That is what led to the idea for this workshop on Saturday, November 21th, from 1 to 4 PM.
This hands-on workshop will be taught by Oakland cemetery’s Director of Preservation, Ashley Shares. You will learn basic headstone preservation techniques. Learn how to properly assess monuments for stability and to carefully clean using safe materials. Discover techniques for resetting several common types of headstones. Participants should wear close-toed shoes, long pants, and gloves. You should bring water, snack, and a shovel if you have one.
While this pandemic is not yet behind us, we are planning to take well-established precautions to make the workshop safe for everyone involved. This will involve wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, minimizing the use of shared equipment (and disinfecting such equipment as necessary), and making disinfectants available as necessary. Safety is our first concern.
Most importantly, because of social distancing requirements, we are limiting attendance to this workshop to a maximum of 6 people. If you would like to attend, please email me as early as possible (pivester@gmail.com) and let me know of your interest. We may be able to have another larger workshop in 2021, but this one will be kept small for everyone’s safety. The cost is $20 per person to cover needed supplies and the instructor’s time.
Thank you for your interest!
The Ruff Family Cemetery, 1976