By Brooke Ames, Mason Blachly and Jack Lyle

This project was a six-and-a-half-month-long process. My group decided to take the Ruark/New Century Cemetery and create a place where people can see their loved ones. The first day of working there was only one or two headstones that could actually be seen and the rest were covered by brush. Most days were spent cutting and burning piles of brush. For the first couple months we worked on Saturdays because between the three of us that was usually the only day of the week that we could all work together. After that we decided that Sundays would be easier. We worked for a couple hours each day and worked almost every week. We were never alone working, nearly every day Gary Bye and Tim Burt were out there helping us and supplying us with tools to complete the job. We even had help from Tory Bye for a few days. Working proved to be surprisingly fun, we passed time talking about our lives and history. There was never a dull moment with this group. We even had a few visitors while we were working who had heard about the work we had done and wanted to see what the cemetery looked like. This project was all in all a great experience for all of us.