Bay View 8th graders spruce up Suamico Cemetery

By Press Times Staff
As part of the school’s commitment to community service, more than 100 8th graders from Bay View Middle School spent a few hours at Suamico Cemetery on Wednesday cleaning up the grounds and making things look nice for the winter season.

Working in eight different sections around the cemetery, students bagged leaves, cleaned headstones and picked up every stray scrap of litter.

“I think what’s cool about it is that we’re actually making a difference in the way it looks,” said Breauna Meyer while taking a short break from her efforts. “It’s nice for the community.”

The same students will be back at Suamico Cemetery in the spring for their second yearly session of community service.

“We’ve had parents drop off trailers last night for us to use for putting leaves in,” said Candice Perz, eighth-grade teacher at Bay View and the person responsible for starting the cemetery clean-up project. “They did this last year in the spring so they’re familiar with it. There are also people who they know who are buried in the cemetery so now, it’s starting to take on a different, personal tone. The kids are very respectful and I think people are sort of amazed when they see how much work they can get done here in such a short amount of time.”