Service project held in honor of MLK Day
POLKTON — Volunteers with the Burnsville Recreation & Learning Center will clean a local, historic cemetery on the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day this month.
The original Poplar Springs Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery was added to the historical registry in 2020, the 242nd historical site in Anson County. The cemetery contains the remains of slaves and free African-Americans, along with members of the slave-owning Turner family, and not all of them are accounted for, according to Carol Smith of the Learning Center.
Smith described the removal of debris from the cemetery as a “monumental” task.
“BRLC volunteers have taken the leading role in Days of Service in honor of those that are laid to rest in this local cemetery,” Smith said in a press release. “I plea to you for continued help as the Restoration Project continues. Cutting and removing of decayed trees, dead stumps of all kinds, brushes, bushes, large limbs, sticks and debris. There are sunken graves that need to be filled with soil, headstones that are broken and more.”
The work will be done from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 15 and 17th at the cemetery located at 183 Rocky Mount Church Rd. in Polkton.
In addition to the work on the cemetery, there will be a giving of prayers, scriptures, fellowship and lunch. BRLC asks that volunteers stay as long or as little as they can on these dates. Volunteers will need to bring their own tools such as chain saws, wheel barrels, hoes, rakes, cutting shears, hedge cutters, chains, ropes, shovels and work gloves.
Donations to support this work are tax deductible, according to Smith. All students will be given a certificate of hours served which includes the tasks they completed, if needed. Those needing services hours are encouraged to join the effort, along with any able-bodied person looking to help. The work done at this site will be recorded and archived at the Anson County Library, Anson County Historical Society, Geneva A. Davis Historical Library at BRLC and in Poplar Spring M. Baptist Church Historical Information, Smith said.
For more information, email burnsvillelc@gmail.com or call Carol Smith at 704-778-7478.
Contributors to this Continual Historical Project 2020, 2021 are as follows:
• North Carolina Archeology Department, Raleigh, NC
• Anson Record News
• The Express News
• Concerned Citizens
• Grave Hunters of Union County,
• Poplar Spring Missionary Baptist Church
• Lyn Thomas Grading and landscaping
• County Commissioners
• Wingate University Historical Department
• Anson County Historical Society
• Individual financial donors
• WGNC Channel 36 T.V. Station