Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Earth Day was celebrated by the Tucumcari High School junior class under the direction of Christina Fleming and several other teachers in a great gift to Tucumcari Memorial Park Cemetery.
Sixty students from that class volunteered services to the cemetery. They donated four hours and painted the posts along the roads a bright yellow. Those posts are to help keep people from running over the graves.
They raked and cleaned the entire hedge on the north edge of the cemetery where weeds and trash constantly blow. They also found a 3-foot diamondback rattlesnake. (Yes, they do live out there.)
They raked and cleaned the trash along the east fence where it also collects so badly.
They cleaned Pauper's Field in the northwest corner of the cemetery where those graves are so often neglected. Then they went through the entire cemetery cleaning and picking up trash.
They donated 240 hours of manual labor. This was a tremendous gift to the cemetery, the city, and the people of Tucumcari.
Just for the record, there are more than 12,000 graves in our cemetery. The cemetery holds so much of the history of Tucumcari and the surrounding area and the students' donation of their time and work helps to preserve this history.
We all need to give them a pat on the back.
I understand the sophomore class donated time to the ball fields and the senior class also did some donation of their time and efforts.
We hear so many things about young people these days and all the bad things a few of them do, but we need to appreciate and acknowledge the good things the students as a whole do for our community.
This was a job well done. Thank you.
Betty Cooper-Coslett
Tucumcari Cemetery advisory board president