HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Hundreds of students volunteered to help restore Henrico County’s historic Woodland Cemetery Monday afternoon.
According to the Woodland Restoration Foundation, students from St. Catherine’s School got their hands dirty in the effort to restore the cemetery during the afternoon of Monday, March 3.
Woodland is a historically Black cemetery located at 2300 Magnolia Road in Henrico County. It is also where tennis legend Arthur Ashe is interred.
The foundation reportedly purchased the cemetery in 2020 and has made significant progress in restoring the property, which was previously neglected for years. With work from volunteers, thousands of graves have been made accessible.
8News spoke to Bruce Tarr with the foundation on Monday to learn more about volunteer efforts.
“It’s a lot of work to do and the winter time, when it’s nice and cool like this, it’s a wonderful time in cemeteries to be out exploring, digging carefully to maybe find stones that may have been covered with decades of dirt and debris to get them back to be visible for the families,” Tarr said.
For more information about the foundation’s work and to find more volunteering opportunities, visit its website.
