SPRING HAS FINALLY ARRIVED AND SO HAVE THE DAFFODILS

     Yesterday, I met Joe Dumais, Superintendent for Portland Cemeteries at the GTC to decide where our long-awaited sign would be placed to mark the location of the East Deering/Grand Trunk Cemetery.  Many residents in Portland have asked for such a sign because they really had no idea where the cemetery was located.

We will have the sign placed close to the driveway entrance to the Presumpscot School showing that the cemetery is behind the school.  

     Thankfully, another crop of committed young Girl Scouts is spearheading a project to increase participation in our annual Spring Cleanup with many activities of interest to children and families who come together this Sunday afternoon to offer their service to the City of Portland and to beautify this sacred burial ground.  The girls will also sponsor a Bake Sale table with a donation jar to help raise funds for the new sign.

     As I waited for Joe to arrive, I wandered about the cemetery and was thrilled to see that many of the bulbs planted last fall, and previous autumns,  had blossomed; a truly welcome sight to greet the Cleanup participants on Sunday.

Daffodils among the leaves to be raked up.

At the Cemetery Entrance

Reflection

      As I gazed on the bright yellow blooms, I thought about how far we have come to reclaim this small, sacred place, and how important a role the Girl Scouts, the young ones, have played in awakening the community to the importance of preserving our ancient cemeteries.  Cemeteries  serve not just as  monuments to the dead, but as records of the history of a place; in this case, the City of Portland and the Back Cove and East Deering communities. 

    When Samantha (Allshouse) Lopez and Kayla Theriault made the commitment to undertake their project to reclaim the Grand Trunk Cemetery,  what they found was a place in deplorable condition.  As Joe Dumais conveyed to this new group of Scouts: " the cemetery was the 'orphan child' suffering the results of age, abandonment, and extreme vandalism.  It really didn't look like a cemetery at all.  While the city did its best to cleanup the site, the Grand Trunk was only one of the twelve or so cemeteries for which the city is responsible.  He welcomed the girls' interest in continuing the work begun by Sam and Kayla and the other Girl Scouts, their families and the "Friends" of the Grand Trunk Cemetery.  
     
     The following is a brief pictorial history:

Condition of the gravestones for Simon Davis and Francis Smith
in 2010

Graffiti covering the stones of Silas and Frances Boothby

      The first cleanup at the Grand Trunk Cemetery took place in November of 2010 with Girl Scouts from my, then Junior Troop at Presumpscot School, where Samantha and Kayla, then Juniors in High School, asked for their assistance.  The city crew had come in previously to mow and pick up the broken branches and dead-fall from the trees.

These young ladies were 5th Graders here; 

they will graduate from High School this year!

     Through out the winter and early spring of 2011, Samantha and Kayla rallied community support making presentations to the East Deering Neighborhood Association, the Parents Council at Presumpscot School, Portland Trails and the Machigonne Service Unit, all while doing continuous research to prepare for the first ever tour of the Cemetery. 

      In May, they received help from their own sister Girl Scouts to ready the site for the tour where about thirty people from the community came on a blustery afternoon.  The girls prepared a brochure with historical information.

Dressed in period costume, Kayla and Sam led the tour of the cemetery

      After the initial events, annual Fall Planting Parties and Spring Cleanups were organized.  Families from the neighborhood, Girl Scout Troops, the Daughters of the American Revolution and our informal Friends of the Grand Trunk Cemetery came out to offer their service.  In 2014, the Girl Scouts of Maine Machigonne Service Unit was inspired by three, then Junior Girl Scouts to formally adopt the cemetery as a yearly project by encouraging Portland Girl Scouts to participate in both, the Fall planting and Spring Cleanup Parties.  These three girls planted small gardens with perennials  and daffodils.

Ella and Megan are 8th Graders today, and Emma, a freshman 

at Portland High School

     This Sunday, May 6th, 2018 from 1 PM - 3 PM, continuing the legacy of those Sam and Kayla, nine Junior Girl Scouts have decided that it is important to encourage the community to care for the Grand Trunk Cemetery by spending an afternoon cleaning and raking and taking part in some wonderfully planned activities.  

     The girls are Candidates for the Girl Scout Bronze Award, the highest level of achievement for Junior Girl Scouts.  In order to receive this award, girls must form a working team, determine a community need, decide on a viable and sustaining  'take action project' for that community while employing their individual and cooperative skills.  At this level, the project will involve about twenty hours of service.

     Here are some of the activities the girls have planned for those participating:

• Old Fashion Games:  Crochet, Hoop&Stick, Bean Bag Toss (Soccer Field)
• Crafts:  Pine Cone Feeder and Painted Rocks
• Historical Scavenger Hunt (Cemetery)
• Raking and Pick up of Brush and Limbs
• Bake Sale Table

     

I invite those of you who are able, to come out Sunday afternoon to support these wonderful Girl Scouts and play among the daffodils at 

the Grand Trunk Cemetery