Note from Doni: This message comes from Tim Bambino of Redding. He’s an organizer of the Save the Old St. Joseph Cemetery project. (He’s also a former Shasta High School buddy.) The Old St. Joseph Cemetery is off Walden Street in Redding, and it holds the remains of some of Shasta County’s first pioneer immigrant families.
The cemetery was vandalized and neglected for many years, until people like Bambino and others stepped up to help.
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By Tim Bambino
The Save the Old St. Joseph Cemetery project has returned the cemetery to as close to its original state as it has been in probably many years.
The committee of Pat Carr, Sharon Babcock, Richard Foxx, Jake Mangas, Mike Baker and myself, with the support of St. Joseph Church , Sacramento Diocese, the Knights of Columbus and the Redding City Council, have made great progress.
We first had a couple of general cleanup days in which all the unwanted vegetation was removed. We fixed the fence where vagrants were getting in and vandalizing the monuments. We contacted the Union Pacific railroad (and took 10 months to find the person to talk to about helping to contain the erosion problem on the west bank next to the tracks.
In May of 2007 Oregon Memorials came down and repaired and reset all the headstones and markers that were damaged … that was about 80 percent of them.
After the headstones were reset, the cemetery started to look better, but there were some other projects to be done.
A wonderful young man, Ben Brown, contacted me after seeing an article in the newspaper about the restoration project. He needed a project to do for his Eagle Scout badge. After meeting with him at the cemetery, Ben agreed to gravel the walkways of the cemetery for us. We walked the grounds and laid out where we figured the walkways were at one time. He, his Scout troop and a number of volunteers – 300 hours’ worth – put crushed granite throughout the cemetery to make the walkways stand out and give the cemetery a lot more character. After Ben did his Eagle Scout project, the cemetery began to look like the cemetery of the past.
The next step was to have the cemetery taken care of on a regular basis. The two maintenance personal at St. Joseph parish can only designate about 16 hours a month to the old cemetery, and that is usually to spray weed killer and remove fallen limbs and rubbish.
That’s when we came up with the Adopt-a-Plot program.
The Adopt-a-Plot Program is an innovative concept in cemetery restoration, beautification and preservation. It offers individuals, groups, organizations, societies and companies the opportunity to play a vital role in saving and preserving the historic St. Joseph Cemetery. The concept is simply people getting involved in efforts to revitalize a community resource, restore its past dignity and beauty, and preserve it for generations to come – that they might point with pride to the results of a community endeavor. By adopting a pioneer family’s plot and caring for it, people become a vital part of the cemetery’s restoration and preservation program. A few hours of time each month and a little imagination can make up for the years of neglect that frequently plagues our old pioneer cemeteries.
This program has taken off with super support. We had two different Sundays were people could come out to the cemetery and pick out the plot they would like to care for. We would explain the program to them and give them some guidelines. After those two days, the committee was really impressed by the support we received. Out of approximately 40 sections of the cemetery that we mapped out, all but eight were adopted.
The sign-up days were last September. Since then, many people have acted on their commitments.
We have held a few fund raisers to help out with costs of the restoration project, along with support form the Sacramento Diocese and St. Joseph Church in Redding.
On Sunday, Jan. 31, we will have another fund raiser: Spudfest II, a potato dinner in which patrons, for $6, will be able to fill a baked potato with their favorite toppings. Last year’s Spudfest was a great success!
Click here for more information about Spudfest II.
