Volunteers come together to clean Bryan City Cemetery grounds
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Saturday was the 29th annual Bryan City Cemetery Work Day.
The annual Work Day is an opportunity for members of the public to help clean gravesites and the Bryan City Cemetery grounds.
The Work Day was come and go, community members volunteered their time to help preserve the dignity of the resting places.
The cleanup includes a variety of different tasks such as polishing the headstones, replacing flowers, pulling weeds, and trimming trees on the cemetery grounds.
The city says the majority of the volunteers are friends or family members of those buried on-site.
One of the volunteers, Robert Perez, decided to spend his Saturday helping clean the Bryan City Cemetery.
“Cleaning up the gravestones, doing what we can, picking up sticks, grass, and ant piles. Ant piles are one of the other things that are just around,” said Perez.
After all the storms hit the area, Robert figured the cemetery needed to be picked up.
“I work for Brazos County Road and Bridge so I know about how the storms caused water damage everywhere. So when my wife told me about it, I figured ‘Why not?’” said Perez.
Robert and his wife came to clean her uncle’s grave and pay their respects.
“It kind of warms your heart knowing that you can help out and pay some respects to your family members, or in this case my wife’s family members,” said Perez.
The Parks Operation Supervisor for the city of Bryan, Cody Junek, said the Work Day allows the community to come together.
“They [volunteers] come out here and they get a lot of spiritual revival. So just to have this area nice and well-maintained is big for the city and we really appreciate all the volunteers that come out here and help us accomplish this goal,” said Junek.
The city of Bryan also has quarterly cleanups where city staff members clean up Bryan City Cemetery and Oakwood Cemetery.
