Veterans carry on public service with cemetery cleanup
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Volunteers put on their boots and gloves Monday morning and got to work cleaning up the Grand Rapids Veterans Home Cemetery.
The cleanup was organized by veterans with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. More than 20 veterans, state workers and community members grabbed rakes and brushes to clean up gravesites.
This was the second year of the event. Organizers said last year, they were only able to pick up sticks and rake leaves. This year, they were able to scrub gravestones.
“Serving the community is just a really heartwarming experience and we have twice the volunteers that we have this year compared to last year,” Autumn Henney, the project manager for the remediation and redevelopment division at EGLE, said.
Henney also served for five years in the U.S. Marine Corps. She said the event fell perfectly on Earth Day.
“We need to help protect our Earth for all of the future generations. Everybody enjoys being outside and doing fun things and without all of us volunteers coming out and helping clean up, realizing that everything we do impacts the environment, it’s really important to keep that in mind,” Henney said.
She was joined with veteran David Enos, who served for 22 years in the military. He is now the president of the Michigan Labor and Economic Opportunity’s group called Got Your 6.
“We try to get out here every year to volunteer and help out on the grounds, help clean the headstones and whatever we can do to help them,” Enos said.
He was able to travel the world and fill many roles in the military including being a part of the U.S. Army’s criminal investigation division. When he retired in 2004 after serving in Afghanistan, Enos wanted to continue serving his community and fellow veterans.
“The Army has a saying that well, ‘soldier for life,’ so I try to carry that forward doing public service to this day,” Enos said.
Enos emphasized that the cleanup is an opportunity to give back to the people who put everything on the line for their country.
“It’s important, I think, to show the family members that come here that they aren’t just planted in the ground and forgotten. There are people here that still care about their service to our nation,” Enos said.
The Got Your 6 group and other state veterans’ groups will be cleaning up Fort Custer National Cemetery near Augusta on May 18 from 9 a.m. to noon. Enos said food would be provided. Anyone interested on helping can contact him at EnosD2michigan.gov.
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