Scouts clean up cemetery

From the road, the Chester Community Cemetery in Spokane Valley looked like an undeveloped wooded area, overgrown with weeds and riddled with rotten slash piles.

Thanks to a 17-year-old Boy Scout named Sam Turner, by Saturday most of the mess was cleared from the rustic burial grounds to reveal gravestones dating to the early 1900s.

Turner, a student at University High School, is working toward his Eagle Scout rank, the highest Scouting honor. His community service project – required for the award – includes sprucing up the 104-year-old cemetery near 44th Avenue and Bates Road.

“It kind of stood out as not very well taken care of,” Turner said. “I wanted it to stand out as something people would appreciate.”

On Saturday, about a dozen Boy Scouts from Turner’s Troop 400 in Spokane Valley, armed with weed whackers, shovels and rakes, helped Turner clean up the aging cemetery.

When the project is complete, the cemetery will have a new gravel path, a new brick retaining wall and planter box near the entrance.

“I didn’t think it would be this bad,” said Boy Scout Anthony Goodwin, 11. “You couldn’t even tell it was a cemetery before.”

The Spokane County cemetery was incorporated in 1901 and is run by a seven-member association.

It sits on five acres of wooded, hilly terrain, once a part of the Chester township. A gravel pathway winds through the forest to more than 50 scattered gravesites.

The earliest recorded burial was in 1902. However, one headstone for a 4-year-old child is dated 1890-1894. Among the most recent burials is Wayne Ady, the owner of the Chester Community Store, who died in 2004.

“It’s a real piece of history,” said Sally Gerimonte, the secretary for the cemetery association that oversees the grounds.

It may look run-down, Gerimonte said, but the association believes in preserving natural spaces. As the city of Spokane Valley grows, open spaces like the five-acre cemetery have been gobbled up by major developers.

“We want to keep things simple out here, while maintaining it as best we can and still respecting those who are buried there,” Gerimonte said.

The cemetery survives solely on private gifts and donations, and help like Turner’s is paramount, Gerimonte said.

Some Boy Scouts have helped with projects at the cemetery in the past, but Turner’s may be one of the largest undertakings, she said.

Turner must spend 80 hours on the project. He has spent some of those hours soliciting donations and supplies from businesses and community members.

Because of the time involved, only about 4 percent of Boy Scouts complete the projects necessary to obtain the rank of Eagle Scout.

“It’s quite an honor,” Turner said. “It takes a lot of hard work and leadership.”

Motivation from Turner’s family has also helped him.

“We told him he couldn’t get his driver’s license unless he started the legwork on his Eagle Scout project,” said his father, Wayne Turner.

Sam Turner is a natural leader among his Scouting troop. Several young boys helping him Sunday said they want to achieve Eagle Scout one day, and watching Turner in action gives them hope that they can do it.

“I see (Turner) coming to all the meetings prepared,” said Steve Peregoy, 11 “He’s always willing to do work. We all kind of look up to him.”

Wayne Turner is especially proud of his son for taking on such a large project and seeing it through.

Sam Turner, who has Type I diabetes, has had to work a little harder than some of his peers, his father said. Outings, especially long overnight trips with the Scouts, require extra preparation.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a struggle; it’s something extra that he has to watch just a little more than others,” Wayne Turner said.

Sam Turner was hoping that his Eagle Scout rank would bump him up on the military pay scale a notch, his father said. The boy had planned to join the Marine Corps after high school, but because of his medical condition he is not eligible. Instead, Turner may consider a career with the Washington State Patrol, like his trooper father.

“Generally, kids that stick with the Scouts keep out of trouble,” Wayne Turner said. “It teaches them to give something back to the community.”