Students help clean up Harrisburg cemetery on their day of service
(WHTM)– Thursday’s hometown heroes took part in a day of service.
Students from Harrisburg and Messiah universities helped clean up Lincoln Cemetery in Harrisburg.
This “Day of Service” takes place on the 56th anniversary of the Assassination of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.
Dating back to 1877, Lincoln Cemetery is Harrisburg’s oldest surviving black cemetery.
“They are using an interactive like mapping interface that will allow people to be able to know the exact geographic location of where a headstone is,” Founder of Saving Our Ancestors Legacy Rachel Williams said.
“I know Harrisburg University likes to collaborate with many schools as possible on really a variety of different projects. but this one kind of, manifested itself as a mutual interest,” Center For Applied Environmental & Geospatial Tech at Harrisburg University Craig Lewis said. “Right? There’s a lot of mutual interest between the universities.”
Messiah University gave students the day off class to work on various service projects around the Midstate.
“We’re entering, first name, last name, date of death. and then back at Messiah,” history and archeology professor at Messiah University David Pettegrew said. “Our students will work to create a database and to to transcribe the stones to create a fully interactive map.”
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