Lodge 288 - Clairton, PA
On April 17, 2010, we had 35 lodge members and parishioners of Ascension Byzantine Catholic Church join together for a spring cleaning of the church hall. Millie Kozloski organized the clean-up and assigned an area, cupboard, or hallway and a bucket, soap and rags to the volunteers and sent us off to get started. It was fun digging into boxes of old posters, pictures and finding statues that had been packed away years ago. In one area, we were able to consolidate materials in cupboards and provide more space for the CCD program supplies. Our lodge provided donuts and bagels for everyone during a break as the volunteers socialized and compared notes on their finds.
Staying in the spring clean-up spirit, we set the date of May 22 for the annual cemetery clean up. It was a gloomy morning with rain threatening when we arrived with shovels, rakes and supplies ready to work. Even with the rain, we were able to begin some of the cleaning projects. First on the list was to dig up the weeds and soil that hid many of the older military markers at the grave sites. We wanted to try to have them all cleaned before the Memorial Day weekend. After cleaning away years of dirt, they needed to be scrubbed and rinsed so they would be more visible. Even the children volunteered with the scrubbing project. They didn’t mind the rain as they worked hard to scrub as many of the plaques as they could before the downpour caused everyone to pack it up and go home. We rescheduled for the next Saturday as our rain date.
The next weekend, volunteers began to target the unattended gravesites and the day was hot and sunny so we got a lot done. Many family members have moved away or are unable to continue to care for their grave sites so we cleaned shrubs, small trees that started to grow under the headstones and lots of poison ivy. No matter how careful everyone was, there were still a few of us who were itching with poison ivy the next day. Plans for replacement of a section of fence are in the works and also planting perennials and shrubs along the entrance of the cemetery is on the fall calendar.
Other activities in the spring included fundraisers for Easter. Our lodge sold ethnic egg wraps and potted Easter lilies, hyacinths and tulips for a matching funds project. Then in May, we honored the women of the parish with corsages for Mother’s Day and for Father’s Day we honored the men of our parish with carnation boutonnières.