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Volunteers clean up historical cemetery on MLK Day
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BATON ROUGE - The effort to keep the Sweet Olive Garden Cemetery maintained is still a task for volunteers in the community. Many organizations, including a veteran-owned and operated business, came out on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to lend a helping hand.
"That's why we are doing it, I have loved ones I had to say goodbye to, so whenever you come out and see how bad this place has gotten, it makes you want to try and do something," said Robert Pinson, the owner of Freedom Services.
Pinson and his crew volunteered to remove as much tree debris as possible.
"We are out here just trying to clean up today because it's a very historical cemetery in Baton Rouge," said Ben Puckett, an employee of Freedom Services. "As a veteran company, we like to do anything we can to help the veteran community."
The cemetery is one of the oldest African American cemeteries in the state of Louisiana, and is the burial site of former slaves and veterans. To remember those who served, veteran organizations came out to clean the property.
With no financial stability for maintenance, it's up to the community to keep it up the site with ongoing care.
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