Fraternity-Testvériség, 2002 (80. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2002-07-01 / 3. szám
FRATERNITY Page 21 Branch 20 - Trenton, New Jersey and Branch 302 - New Brunswick, New Jersey A Joint Project for Join Hands Day Saturday, June 15, 2002 On Join Hands Day, six members of Branch 20 (Deneice, Julius, László, Tamara, Krista, and Airlia Oroszvary) traveled to New Brunswick to join members and friends of Branch 302 (Anna and László Lipoczky, Matilda and George Dózsa, Jerry Wyttenbach, Melissa Pepin, John Butcher, Camilla Farkas and her fiance, and Paul Bodo) to clean up the Hungarian children’s section of the Evergreen Cemetery on Georges Road. These Hungarian children were buried there through the 1920’s, at a time when there was a separate, additional fee for perpetual maintenance, which those families could not pay. The evergreen trees in this section have overgrown and have dropped an 8-inch-layer of pine needles over the years, and have killed all the ground plants and, in some cases, completely covered the headstones. The main task was just to rake up the pine needles, load them onto the two large pickup trucks that had been provided, and dump them into a composting area at the far side of the cemetery. The trick was not to dig ALL the way down, because the bare earth would then be subject to erosion. Some of the gravestones are fragile, and we carefully worked around them so we would not chip them any further than time and weather have already done. A tree surgeon will have to be brought in to trim the evergreen branches and allow some light in. A later project will be to plant ground cover and flowers. The unusually cool day for the middle of June allowed us to work faster than anticipated. We decided to clear the road behind the children’s section, as well. There we found two broken headstones which had been dumped there some time ago. We dug them out, dusted them off, and propped them up against a tree. Since the writing on the stones was in Hebrew, a local Jewish group is being contacted to find out where they may belong. Tamara and Krista were encouraged to wander around taking pictures for a while. One place they wandered to was over to a small fenced in area across from the main access road. This turned out to be another neglected part of the cemetery, a Jewish section. Graves are squeezed in with very little space between them and narrow aisles. With no pine trees in that section, the problem is weeds, which are so large that they completely hide some of the stones. We contacted a Jewish youth group to make sure that in the future, the Jewish section of the cemetery will be included as a site for their group to work when they are performing community service. It is difficult to know where to stop writing about the events flowing out of Join Hands Day. With the contacts we have made, we are certain to hear about other things we can do. The children I took with me came reluctantly, but ended up enjoying themselves. They want to take their friends to see some of the great gravestones they found. They are asking if we will go back next year, or if there is a cemetery in Trenton that needs to be cleaned up. They worked side by side with some of the people they had previously known only as Federation officials. Now they think of them as “George” and “Laci”, and as friends. Our deepest appreciation to all the volunteers for their hard work and perseverance. Special thanks to László Lipoczky, who organized and directed this project from its inception to the very end in a most outstanding way. Deneice Oroszvary, Branch Manager, Br. 20 Tel:215-493-0656 Doroszvary@aol. com Jerry Wyttenbach, Branch Manager, Br. 302 Tel: 732-249-7260 A breather before continuing with the clean-up work. A much deserved rest before continuing with the hard work. Racking and cleaning up around the gravestones.
