Although going for walks in the woods in Brambleton Regional Park in Ashburn about a year in the past, 14-calendar year-aged Jack Gray and his father, Bart Gray, stumbled on an old cemetery in the vicinity of the Brambleton Golf Class.
As inhabitants in the nearby Broadlands community, they commonly hike in the space and experienced been on the lookout for an Eagle Scout project for Jack, who is a member of Boy Scout Troop 51.
When they uncovered the cemetery, it experienced fallen and sunken headstones, and a lot of were cracked. Most were being unreadable and the space was overgrown with weeds and trees, they reported.
Soon after the hike that working day, Jack Grey made the decision to inquire about the likelihood of restoring the space all around the cemetery and the gravestones.
Past December, Jack Grey achieved with Dustin Betthauser, park manager for NOVA Parks, who was excited to listen to about his curiosity in the cemetery.
“It was on just one of our challenge lists to make some enhancements and the timing was impeccable. It was ideal for an Eagle Scout undertaking. It is a sensitive area since of its historic importance,” Betthauser instructed the Instances-Mirror.
The father-son group enlisted the assist of Jim Brief, who has retired from NOVA Parks and now restores gravestones with his small business Graveside Guardians. Brief stated he was pleased to support with the task.
“Any function in honoring and restoring a sacred spot is a deserving project,” he explained.
The somewhere around 4,200 sq. foot cemetery — acknowledged as the Lyons Family members Cemetery — is situated in the woods in between holes 3 and four on the golfing course. It took 10 months and more than 450 hours to restore the area.
Jack Gray claimed he proposed, prepared, resourced and spearheaded the initiative, which integrated restoring a stone fence, landscaping, restoring a wrought iron fence, restoring historic signage, figuring out and restoring gravestones, and updating archive information.
Preliminary web site operate started in the spring and ongoing throughout the summer months months.
They uncovered headstones courting from the Civil War to Planet War I and mounted them with stainless metal mounts. Limited shown how to carefully clean and rid the stones of lichen.
The uncovered grave markers stand for members of numerous Loudoun County people: Lyon, Burdine, Edwards, Havener, Hawes, Jackson, Moran, Paxson and Shryock.
Jack Gray explained that according to the site’s historical marker, one particular of those interred at the cemetery is considered to be Private Richard “Dick” Moran. Moran, recognized as the “Warring Methodist,” was a member of Mosby’s Raiders and was credited with important contributions to local steps in the area through the Civil War.
“It was a good deal of do the job. The stones had been black or brown and now they are white. There is a large change in the shade. It now looks like some thing the group can be proud of,” Jack Gray claimed.
He mentioned the most difficult aspect was the paperwork and prep get the job done for a just one-working day volunteer function with a group of fellow scouts. The relaxation of the task was finished around the training course of the summer season with the help of his household.
“It was so gratifying to give back again to the community. And many thanks to Jim, people headstones look incredible. We felt like archaeologists uncovering artifacts,” Bart Grey explained.
Betthauser is grateful to the Gray loved ones for all of their difficult function, specifically Jack who took an concept, designed objectives and moved through challenges and objectives to make it appear to fruition.
“Kudos to him. The stop product is a excellent thing,” he mentioned.