Helen Wildermuth from Stonehugger Cemetery Restoration, located in Nashville, Indiana gave the presentation. Over her 17 year career, she has restored more than 15,000 stones of all sizes and types. She is an advocate for educating communities about the care of their cemeteries.Wildermuth's presentation talked about the types of problems that cemeteries face, the types of stones and the materials they are made of, safety issues, and the process for care. She discussed a long list of 'what not to do' in the process of restoration. She also showed before and after photographs of her work and how she documents an entire cemetery. Awesome!
This was a very interesting presentation and I'm so glad I attended - with thoughts of cleaning up the Viatorian headstones in mind - now I know a few things about it.
I ran into old friends, there too - the Winkelmann's. Their son Brian is working on his Eagle Scout project which involves making some improvements at the Wolfrum Cemetery in Palatine, including a path with benches, landscaping, drainage improvement and a plaque. In fact, he's got a fundraising event for his project this weekend - Saturday, Sep 18 and Sunday, Sep 19 at Photo's Hotdogs. Click this link for details.
