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This extraordinary garden cemetery, serving the community as both
a cemetery burial ground and as a garden park with walking paths,
requires year around maintenance. The garden cemetery has gravel,
paved, and dirt walking paths. The trees get old and die or suffer
storm damage. The grounds have natural underground springs and a
small pond area filled by springs and water runoff from 16th Street
and from several springs running off Sharp Mountain. The garden
cemetery is a conduit for school students traversing from the
east side of Pottsville to the near-by school district on the west
side. The chapel is used for summer church services and burial services.
A carriage house used to house the equipment, is adjacent to the 16th
Street water runoff basin. The spring season requires clean-up from
the winter storms and broken branches, and the fall season produces
bushels of fallen leaves that need to be raked and vacuumed up. No
matter what time of year, there are restoration or maintenance projects
and ground clean-up, grooming, and care required.
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This unique and natural garden cemetery has several projects
that need community support and sponsorship. Some projects,
like the pond, are a costly and once and done project. Other
projects, like the dead tree cutting and removal, must be done
each year. Some projects could be done by Boy or Girl Scout
troops or as an Eagle Scout project, others could be sponsored
by local organizations like the Rotary, the Lions, or by the
School District or the City of Pottsville, and other projects
could be accomplished from financial support from the community
or “friends” of the garden cemetery or by volunteers lending a
helping hand. The projects of the Charles Baber Garden Cemetery
are broken down into three categories: (1) Grounds Maintenance
and Improvement; (2) the Chapel; and (3) Clean-up\Helping Hands.
A form has been provided for your convenience in sponsoring,
contributing or providing a helping hand with any of the Baber
Garden Cemetery projects. The sponsorship of a major project like
the pond, the labyrinth, or the chapel windows, can be gifted as
a memorial or as a gift of thanksgiving for something or someone.
The project would be blessed upon completion at a special service.
If you wish to sponsor or contribute to a project, your check can
be made payable to the Charles Baber Cemetery Preservation Trust
(a non-profit organization), memo marking it for its intended purpose,
and mailing it to the office at 200 S. Second St., Pottsville, PA
17901. [As a non-profit preservation trust corporation, your financial
contributions to these projects are charitable tax deductible donations.]
If you can lend a helping hand anytime at your convenience, please call
the office at 570-622-8720. If you have questions or need more detail or
information about a particular project call the office or e-mail at babercem@verizon.net
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