Donations to the Burial Society allowed us to purchase a kiosk for the Albany Hebrew Cemetery. This kiosk will display information about the Masons, the Burial Society, and how to get involved. We hope to include a map of the cemetery and information about the website, albanyhebrewcemetery.org, which people can use to look up information about the pioneer families buried in this cemetery. In addition, there will be information about cleaning headstones and safety precautions for the cemetery.
On October 9, the first stage of Nathan Vega’s Eagle Scout project to put up the kiosk became a reality, when he and 8 volunteers erected the kiosk posts. This took the entire day, and much physical labor, as well as use of problelm-solving skills. Nathan organized and participated in digging out the site, filling it with a gravel pad layer, digging post holes, erecting and bracing the posts, and lastly pouring concrete for stabilization. The work was complicated when they discovered the site was directly over a burn pile, and the water supply at cemetery was not accessible. Fortunately, the project manager (Nathan) had a we-can-do attitude, and found solutions to the challenges that arose.
Plans are for Nathan and his team to complete the kiosk and landscaping around it on October 23.
We’d like to send a big “THANK YOU!” to Nathan, for his time and energy to plan the kiosk project and turn it into a reality!
Joni and Amy
Note: This kiosk project is part of the ongoing cemetery restoration project at the Albany Hebrew Cemetery which is supported by the Willamette Jewish Community Burial Society and by a grant from the Oregon Commission on Historic Cemeteries and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.
