ENROLLMENT PERIOD ENDS. WELL, THE YORK COUNTY GROUP COMING TO PRESERVE ONE OF YORK’S ALL BLACK CEMETERIES. NEWS EIGHT’S JAY SCOTT SMITH SAID DOWN TO ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF FRIENDS OF LEBANON CEMETERY AND WHAT THEIR MISSION IS NOW. THERE ARE MORE THAN 5000 HISTORICALLY BLACK CEMETERIES IN THE UNITED STATES, AND ONE OF THEM, IN YORK COUNTY, HAS FALLEN INTO DISREPAIR. BUT AN ORGANIZATION IS WORKING HARD TO NOT JUST MAINTAIN THE GROUNDS OF YORK’S LEBANON CEMETERY, BUT ALSO UPHOLD THE DIGNITY OF THE DECEASED AND I’D LIKE TO WELCOME SAMANTHA DAUM, ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF FRIENDS OF LEBANON CEMETERY. SAMANTHA, THANK YOU FOR JOINING US. THANK YOU SO, SO WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO TO WANT TO HELP PRESERVE LEBANON CEMETERY? WELL, I JUST GOT INVOLVED WITH THE PROJECT HERE WITH LEBANON CEMETERY IN 2019. I HAD TWO RELATIVES THAT HAD PASSED THAT SPRING. AND HONESTLY, PRIOR TO THAT, I HADN’T BEEN TO THE CEMETERY FOR A LITTLE WHILE OTHER THAN TO JUST GO AND PLACE FLOWERS, YOU KNOW, HOLIDAYS OR BIRTHDAYS OF MY GRANDPARENTS AND GREAT GRANDPARENTS. SO WHEN I WAS THERE, AND I BELIEVE APRIL OF 2019 AND JUST SAW MAYBE SOME OF THE GROUNDHOG HOLES OR BROKEN STONES AND THINGS ON THAT LINE, I THOUGHT, YOU KNOW, I’VE GOT A LITTLE BIT OF TIME. AND SO I THOUGHT, YOU KNOW, I CAN VOLUNTEER. AND I FOUND A GROUP ON FACEBOOK THAT WAS JUST GOING OUT PERIODICALLY AND DOING SOME CLEANUPS AND I GOT INVOLVED WITH THEM IN MAY OF 2019. UM, I’M A. GRANT CONSULTANT, AND I KNEW THAT THERE WAS FUNDING OUT THERE FOR HISTORIC BLACK CEMETERIES AND I WAS OFFERING MY RESOURCES, MY PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES, AND IT HAS SNOWBALLED SINCE THAT TIME. AND THE LEBANON CEMETERY FIRST OPENED IN 1872. YOU MENTIONED HISTORICALLY BLACK AND YOU ALSO MENTIONED THAT YOU HAD RELATIVES, INCLUDING YOU KIND OF BROUGHT HIM UP THERE. YOUR GRANDFATHER, FOR EXAMPLE. YES. TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR GRANDFATHER, RUSSELL. SO THE RUSSELL DORM TROOPER JACQUES, UM, JUST LOOKING INTO THIS JOURNEY, FIRST AND FOREMOST, WHEN I WAS TRYING TO FIND OUT INFORMATION ABOUT MY GRANDFATHER, HE PASSED WHEN I WAS TEN YEARS OLD. AND SO HE WAS ALWAYS JUST POP AND WHEN I WAS LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ABOUT HIM AND TALKING TO MY FATHER, I, I ASKED FOR SOME OF THE FAMILY PHOTO ALBUMS, AND I SAW THIS PICTURE IN A PHOTO ALBUM. WELL, I DIDN’T KNOW POP EVER SERVED IN THE MILITARY, SO I STARTED RESEARCHING HIS LIFE AND I FOUND SOME INFORMATION WHERE HE WAS LISTED IN TUSKEGEE DURING WORLD WAR TWO, WHEN I ASKED MY FATHER, WHAT DID POP DO? HE SAID, WELL, HE WAS JUST A MECHANIC, BUT THAT’S WHAT POP DID HERE IN YORK, PENNSYLVANIA FOR. AS I WAS GOING THROUGH THE RECORDS. THEN I SAW HIM LISTED AS AN AVIATION CADET, NOT A MECHANIC. FROM THAT TIME, I’VE BEEN ABLE TO WORK WITH THE NATIONAL CEMETERY ADMINISTRATION, AS WELL AS THE VETERANS AFFAIRS OFFICES HERE IN OUR LOCAL REGION, TO OBTAIN A FLAG HOLDER FOR MY GRANDFATHER’S GRAVE, BECAUSE HE HAD A REGULAR STONE, THERE WAS NOTHING THAT INDICATED THAT HE SERVED OUR COUNTRY AND I WAS ABLE TO HAVE THAT PRESENTED BY THEN LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR JOHN FETTERMAN TO MY FATHER TWO MONTHS BEFORE HE PASSED. HOW CAN PEOPLE GET MORE INFORMATION ON THE FRIENDS OF LEBANON CEMETERY TO CONTACT FRIENDS OF LEBANON CEMETERY? WE DO HAVE A WEBSITE WHICH IS JUST FRIENDS OF LEBANON CEMETERY, WYCOMBE. I SEE I’M GOING TO. YES IT IS FRIENDS OF LEBANON CEMETERY.COM. I APOLOGIZE AND ALSO TO FOLLOW OUR FACEBOOK PAGE. ONE THING THAT WE DO ON THE FACEBOOK PAGE IS TELL THE STORIES OF THE INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE INTERRED. AND SO THAT IS REALLY WHAT WE FOCUS. ON TRYING TO CONNECT FAMILIES TO THEIR HISTORY. ONE THING THAT HAS HAPPENED FOR ME, I KNOW NOW THAT I HAVE SIX GENERATIONS OF FAMILY JUST AT LEBANON CEMETERY ON TWO LINES OF MY FAMILY, I HAVE OVER 100 DIRECT RELATIVES AT LEBANON CEMETERY AND SO KNOWING THIS, IT GIVES ME CERTAINLY A SENSE OF PRIDE, BUT IT ALSO REITERATES THAT THOUGHT OF I COME FROM GREATNESS AND WANT TO BE ABLE TO GIVE THAT EXACT SAME OPPORTUNITY, THAT EXACT SAME EMOTION TO OTHERS. SAMANTHA. DAWN, THANK YOU SO