Volunteers from Naval District Washington give back to the community during 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES

09.12.2015

Story by Petty Officer 1st Class Pedro Rodriguez 

Naval District Washington

WASHINGTON (Sept. 12, 2015) – Volunteers from around Naval District Washington (NDW) participated in the clean-up and landscape of the Historic Congressional Cemetery in commemoration of National 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance, Sept. 12.

According to NDW Community Service Program Manager Olivia Hunter, NDW community service program adopted the Historic Congressional Cemetery as an environmental stewardship project more than 10 years ago. As a result more volunteers have joined in this annual event to restore the historic site that served as the National Cemetery 70 years before Arlington Cemetery came into use. The volunteer event is now a joint service effort as members of all branches of the military participate, which falls during the week of 9/11.

“The Day of Remembrance project has been an annual event since 2004. NDW’s regional community service program felt it was fitting to commemorate the Day of Remembrance, since it was discovered that Adm. Thomas Tingey-Craven, the first commandant of the Washington Navy Yard was buried there,” said Hunter.

Each year over 1,000 volunteers help maintain the cemetery, but the Historic Congressional Cemetery reserves the Day of Remembrance volunteer event for military personnel and families who would like to volunteer for this large project.

“We gather up four or five major projects that we need a lot of people and the volunteers come out and do a great job, they start on time and they work right up until lunch,” said Paul Williams, president, Historic Congressional Cemetery.

According to Hunter the number of participants continue to increase each year with more than 200 volunteers helping in the beautification and clean-up of the cemetery accumulating more than 800 labor hours.

“Last year we had 165 volunteers, and this year in spite of rainy weather, people still came out to help,” said Hunter. “I believe the increase is due to so many people wanting to do something positive to commemorate 9/11 and some of the other disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. This project is "family friendly” because there is always something for everyone to do.”

Other prominent military leaders are also buried in the Historic Congressional Cemetery grounds in addition to Adm. Tingey-Craven.

“What’s really nice is that we have a lot of military personnel that’s buried here from enlisted to officers, commandants, commodores, generals so it’s a meaningful place for military personnel to come and learn a little bit about the history of their country and the people that are buried here,” said Williams.

Congressional Cemetery is a 35 acre historic yet active burial ground located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Initially known as the Washington Parish Burial Ground, Congressional became the first truly national burial ground as Congress bought sites, buried noted civil servants, and funded the infrastructure.

For more information about the Historic Congressional Cemetery visit their website at http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/why-congressional.asp

For more information about volunteer events visit the NDW website at http://www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/ndw.html

For more news from Naval District Washington, visit www.navy.mil/local/ndw/ or visit out Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/NavDistWash

• Date Taken: 09.12.2015
• Date Posted: 09.21.2015 13:40
• Story ID: 176748
• Location: WASHINGTON, DC, US
• Hometown: WASHINGTON, DC, US