Since moving to our current building in 2023, both students and teachers noticed issues with the Gibson Memorial Cemetery. The cemetery is located in a place that makes it a focal point of the neighborhood around our school. In the fall of 2025, a student team began trying to find out information about the property and a point of contact. The students really wanted to work to clean it up and were interested in the possibilities for restoration of the property. After some research and investigation, the students were able to make contact with Ms. Mickey Conrad, who is responsible for the cemetery. The students found out that the Cemetery is a privately owned family property that dates back to the 1830’s and that the family has no fixed budget for maintenance and upkeep. She and the family welcomed the students to help with the cemetery. After examining the property, the students identified several things that need to be done to rehabilitate the property and other ways to create a lasting legacy for it.
General Cleanup: The cemetery grounds have not been regularly maintained in some time and the student team felt this work needed to be done before we could begin on other stages of the project. The team realized how big the project was and knew that they needed help. They went to Ms. Hum, our AVID coordinator, worked with her to develop a plan to recruit AVID students to assist in the cleanup and scheduled our first workday to rake leaves on the property. The workdays that students have scheduled have worked out well and about a dozen students showed up on each occasion.
Monument Cleanup and Mapping: When the student team first got to see the grounds of the cemetery, they noticed that many of the monuments and headstones were difficult to read. They realized that this was because they were dirty and had not been cleaned in some time. They marked that as one of their priorities to accomplish on this project. A couple of the students began researching methods and materials needed to clean and preserve cemetery monuments as they also noticed that many of them were quite old. Ms. Conrad informed the students that the cemetery had been in her family for generations and the first graves date back to 1839. After gaining that knowledge, the students thought that documenting and sharing that information could be a valuable way to understand local history. They decided that a good way to do that would be to digitally map the graves using ArcGIS Story Maps.
Fence Redesign and Installation: The cemetery is surrounded by a chain link fence that has been damaged in several places and needs to be repaired or replaced. The student team decided to create digital designs of the fence using Sketchup to give Ms. Conrad and her family several options regarding what the property could look like. They are currently working on a post and rail design and a short picket design. Their plan includes developing a campaign that the family can use to generate funding for this aspect of the project.
Sign Redesign and Installation: One of the most visible problems that students saw was that the sign for the cemetery was literally falling apart. Some of the letters had split and begun to fall off. They decided to resign the sign. After taking some measurements, one of the team members began creating a series of design proofs that will allow Ms. Conrad and her family to choose the design we build.
Other: Another issue that needs to be addressed is that the cemetery has several large trees that need to be pruned back or removed. The student team is working on a digital rendering of the property without trees to help the family find funding to make these necessary improvements.