Staff writer
As the Prairie Lawn Cemetery board enters the second quarter of 2012, it has nearly reached the end of a capital campaign initiated before the first of the year to raise funds for the new fence running the length of the cemetery’s west side.
The fence the board selected is made of black powder-coated galvanized steel. It is 4-feet-tall, with vertical pickets and three horizontal rails. There are no spikes at the top or the bottom.
The fence was installed in April. The original cemetery gates, dating to 1904, were left intact at the cemetery entrance.
“Our ‘Fence by the Foot’ campaign began in December,” Secretary-treasurer Carmen South said. “To fund the purchase, we first sent letters requesting donations to people we thought had an interest in Prairie Lawn and the Peabody community. The response was great, and we then put a clip-out ad in the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin hoping to reach local donors and cemetery district members.”
The board will be placing the names of people who donate $250, $500, or $1,000 on plaques that will be installed at the cemetery.
“We are very close to having the money we need,” South said. “But we thought it would be a good idea to review the project again in case there are people who still are interested in donating.
“And we decided to use July 1 as a cutoff date for anyone who wants to get their name on the donor plaque,” South said.
The board has decided that after the cutoff date or after the cost of the fence is met, any funds coming that might come in will go toward landscaping and replacement of the many 100-year old pine trees that have died.
A clip-out form to include with a donation to “Fence by the Foot” is available in this issue of the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin. For more information contact South at (620) 983-2512 or Maurice Meirowsky at (620) 983-2881.