The Home Depot Foundation has awarded a $10,000 grant to address the continued upkeep of the Zachary Public Cemetery.
Carl Spears, a leader in the community organization formed to help maintain the cemetery, said the money will be used to purchase equipment and build a permanent structure on the groups to house the equipment.
Home Depot manager Dawayne Gates became aware of the community workdays related to the cemetery and wrote the grant request to aid the individuals, groups, and churches involved in the ongoing cleanup efforts. Gates, a longtime manager at the Zachary Home Depot, has been transferred to another location since helping to secure the grant.
Spears expressed gratitude for the grant funding and said before the funding is used, the core group of volunteers is busy trying to recruit more volunteers.
“Certainly, we are grateful to have them on board,” he said. “They were able to provide some equipment needed to go out and cut the graveyard and now we will be able place a shed out there to store all the equipment so it can be kept on site.”
Recent heavy rainy seasons and the COVID-19 pandemic has put several obstacles in the path. “We do have had some volunteers to come out from different groups and we're still looking to build up on number,” Spears said. “This is big endeavor and we've been in talks with an engineer to see how to best go about doing this project.”
The cemetery has a long history that includes changes in ownership and intervention from community groups to keep the cemetery from becoming an eyesore.
Zachary Public Cemetery predates Zachary, so the current name is relatively new. The earliest grave is dated 1850 which means burials there started at least 10 years before the Civil War and nearly 40 years before Zachary was incorporated following a large land donation from Darel Zachary to help connect the area to railroad traffic.
The cemetery was first the final resting place for only White residents, but the last several decades saw Black families using the cemetery. A group of residents, using funds from local benevolent societies and churches, bought the property in 1926.
Spears' father was one of two late prominent Black community leaders who formed the Zachary Public Cemetery Maintenance Organization in 1987. Concerned residents felt the cemetery was in bad shape and the group tried to address the problems and volunteered time for upkeep.
Gates’ organization is a national leader in home and building supplies and the grants help the retailer give back to the communities they serve. The Home Depot Foundation works to improve the homes and lives of U.S. veterans, train skilled tradespeople to fill the labor gap and support communities impacted by natural disasters. The company’s Website reported that the foundation has invested more than $375M in veteran causes and improved more than 50,000 veteran homes and facilities since it started in 2011. Home Depot switches the focus to individual communities with their Community Impact Grants to help support efforts like the Zachary Public Cemetery project.
A fund has been set up at the Bank of Zachary to help fund the ongoing upkeep of the Zachary Public Cemetery. For more information and a schedule of upcoming volunteer workdays, visit the Zachary Public Cemetery Facebook group.