Seckman High senior Tyler Schmidt, 17, recently completed a project at the Richardson Cemetery in Arnold, erecting gravestones that had fallen down over the years.
Schmidt is a member of Venturing Crew 2479, based at the Arnold VFW Post 2593. The Venturing Crew is a Boy Scouts youth development program for young men and women who are at least 13 years old and have completed the eighth grade up through those 20 years old.
He also is a former member of Boy Scout Troop 744 that was based in Arnold before it disbanded.
Schmidt, who lives in Arnold, said he completed the cemetery improvements for his Eagle Scout project and plans to submit the paperwork required to apply for the award.
He previously volunteered time to cut grass and do other grounds keeping around the cemetery and asked Bernie Wilde of the Arnold Historical Society, which oversees the cemetery upkeep, if there were improvements he could make there for his Eagle Scout project.
“Many of the very old, thin gravestones have been laying flat on the ground,” Wilde said.
She said she had seen how fallen gravestones in other cemeteries had been lifted and sturdied with frames and suggested Schmidt organize a similar project.
Schmidt said he began planning the project “a few months ago,” and he and some of his fellow Venturers, family members and friends worked two consecutive weekends building and installing wooden frames that fit around the base of the old gravestones that are now standing and being supported by the frames. The project was finished on July 30.
“It makes the graveyard look nice, and it restores a little bit of missing culture,” Schmidt said. “It’s crazy to think it’s been there since the 1800s, and they’ve been burying people there since then.”
He is the son of Kes Schmidt of Arnold and Raymond Schmidt of Arnold.
Wilde said she appreciates Schmidt’s work at the cemetery.
“Richardson Cemetery now looks very different,” she said. “The stones have been erected both on the west front side as well as some of the old Frederitizi stones dating back to 1862.”
