Cub Scouts and volunteers begin repairs. The community is welcome to help this afternoon, 5 p.m.
Earlier this spring, the Radford News Journal reported the desecration of Radford’s historic Central Cemetery in which an unknown number of headstones of war veterans, families and toddlers were toppled and obelisks broken.
This evening, at 5 p.m., a group of Cub Scouts and volunteers will begin repairing the damage.
April Martin, who enjoined the effort, invites volunteers to bring gloves and an interest the community and in this 200-year-old piece of Radford history that houses the graves of Civil War veterans and local family lines.
“We will not get it all done on Wednesday and will need continued support,” she said.
Since the spring report, Radford police officers located a juvenile girl who admitted to pushing over one or two stones.
“There’s no way this young lady turned all those over,” Lt. Andy Wilburn, public relations person for the Radford Police Department said.
Central Cemetery is one of a surprising three cemeteries in the quiet, hilltop neighborhood on Lawrence Street between Sixth and Fourth, so intertwined with the neighborhood that the cemeteries and houses share walls and fences.
But Central Cemetery is one of six cemeteries in Radford that are no longer owned by a person or entity.
Because the cemetery is without an official protector, neighbors of the land, volunteers who mow the grass, and American Legion members who replace the flag are dismayed when vandalism happens although this event is not the first.
The police suspect university students commit the vandalism, an accusation substantiated by headstones being recovered in frat houses according to Radford Police Department public relations person Andy Wilburn and historian April Danner, who leads occasional tours through the historically important site.
The police department has suggested recruiting the fraternities to tend and protect the cemetery, raising awareness, responsibility and pride. The police may meet with university groups to pitch this idea in the autumn.
