Students clean up cemetery

FARMINGTON - Sophomore students from the Upper Columbia Academy in Spangle helped out at the Farmington Cemetery on Wednesday, May 8, cleaning up and power washing headstones.

Farmington Mountain View Cemetery District Commissioner Wes Wagner said that the students do their community service four times a year, and the program is ran by Curtis Anderson. "I was interested in having them come help clean up some of the old gravestones from the early to lat 1800s," said Wagner.

HOPE Task Force Coordinator Curtis Anderson said that HOPE stands for "Helping Other People Everywhere," and was started by the student body approximately in 1990.

"That's been going as a standard project for the school for 20 some years," Wagner said.

Anderson said that the goal of the force was to focus outward, instead of inward. "As a private school, we tend to focus inward. We need to be focusing outward, and get into our community."

Wagner said that one the cemetery district's commissioners, Doug Bruce is from Idaho and was really excited about the students being there to clean up. "We had good weather, and it turned out pretty good," he said.

The Mountain View Cemetery has a lot of history and local families, Wagner said, adding that it was good to see some of the old headstones readable, with the first cemetery starting in 1877.

The Hope Task Force sends kids to as many local communities as they can, Anderson said, adding that he would like to learn of more communities that need any kind of help.

"We've been to Malden many times, helping them as many times as possible," Anderson said, adding that they've been to Rosalia, Cheney, and have gone to Spokane often.

Anderson invites any community that wants help to reach out to him at Upper Columbia Academy, so that the HOPE Task Force can be there. "It's good for the kids," he said, adding that helping someone else allows them the chance to think of others.