Students clean up cemetery

Sisters High School Interdisciplinary Experiential Education (IEE) students got to experience a piece of Sisters history last week. 23 students from the IEE program participated in a cleanup at Camp Polk Cemetery on Thursday, December 1.

Students learned a little bit about the cemetery's history in the classroom earlier in the week and then took a bus to the cemetery. As they hiked in from Camp Polk Road the weather was chilly but it didn't dampen their spirits.

The service project came about in advance of the upcoming Wreaths Across America ceremony at Camp Polk Cemetery.

Camp Polk Cemetery is unmanaged, and current ownership is not clear. In the past, community volunteers have cleaned up the graves around Memorial and Veterans days.

Led by a team of IEE interns, teachers Samra Spear and Rand Runco, as well as community volunteers including Lance Trowbridge and Earl Schroeder from Sisters American Legion Post 86 and Sisters V.F.W. Post 8138, students divided the cemetery into sections and got to work. Armed with rakes, brooms, buckets and wheelbarrows the students cleaned pine needles, trash, and other debris from each of the gravesites.

Runco talked with students about the emotion he felt when he walked through the cemetery the week prior and saw four past students buried in this location.

"It hit me and I wasn't prepared for it," he told the group. "It's okay to feel unexpected emotion."

A small trailer-load of pine needles and other debris was removed from the site during the cleanup. In addition, graves were swept and raked. Many students had questions about community members who were buried at the cemetery and had an opportunity to learn Sisters history from community members in attendance.

"I feel like the whole experience was a good way for us to understand something so simple as picking up trash can have such a great impact on something bigger, like the way people respect people who have passed," said junior Jaden Condel.

Lance Trowbridge's parents are interred at the cemetery. He spoke to the group with emotion in his voice about how his parents met and the life they lived. Students heard why Camp Polk Cemetery is a special place to him and many others.

"This experience enhanced the students' knowledge of the history of Sisters, created a special bond with the population being served, and increased their social awareness and responsibility," teacher Samra Spear said.

Camp Polk Cemetery has graves dating back to 1880 and many names etched on headstones are those students recognized as founders of Sisters as well as current graves.

"A couple years ago we lost a family friend and I got the gift of cleaning up his grave," said Rylee Weber, a junior at SHS. "Everyone buried there has a story and people who their loss affected. What we got to do was a beautiful reminder of their stories."

Another group of students from IEE will return to the cemetery this Wednesday, December 7, to trim trees and do a few additional repairs in preparation for the Wreaths Across America Ceremony on Saturday, December 17.