Huntington seeks volunteers for cemeteries

The Town of Huntington is seeking volunteers to work as cemetery stewards at its historic cemeteries. The volunteers will visit and assess what needs to be done at the facilities to spruce them up.

“It’s incredibly important to preserve the historic cemeteries,” said Councilwoman Susan Berland, sponsor of the resolution that created a cemetery stewards program. “If anything happens to them we lose history. Learning the stories of the people buried there and making sure their final resting place is preserved and maintained is good for everyone.”

The town board unanimously approved the resolution at a recent meeting.

There are about 56 historic cemeteries in the town and Berland said she hopes to assign one volunteer to each.

Applicants will be asked to indicate at which cemetery they wish to volunteer, why they want to do it and any special skills they may have.

“Their job would be to access the burial ground, see what kind of work needs to be done, whether it needs a clean up, if there are headstones that are damaged,” Berland said.

Volunteers will report back to town officials about what needs to be done after an assessment. They will not be doing any of the work, Berland said.

“Once we can assess what needs to be done, we can organize community cleanups,” she said.

The town expects to have a link onits website for the steward program soon. Until then, information is available from Berland’s office at 631-351-3173.