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The Friends of East End Cemetery Rallies Support for $25,000 Grant

17 August 2019—East End Cemetery, Henrico Co. and Richmond , VA—Volunteer workday with Friends of East End, regulars, and members of the Ghanaian Association of the Richmond Metropolis. All photos provided by Brian Palmer/brianpalmer.photos

The Friends of East End Cemetery needs the community to vote for them to receive a $25,000 grant from State Farm®.

Since 2013, the all-volunteer organization has worked to restore East End, a historic African American burial ground in Henrico County. Over the years, they have connected with friends and relatives of the deceased who have informally shared their loved ones’ stories. Now they seek to professionally record oral histories for the purpose of education and research.

That’s where you come in.


U.S. residents who are 18 and older with a valid email address can vote for their favorite cause at www.neighborhoodassist.com.

The Friends have until Aug. 23 at 11:59:59 pm ET to rally votes. Anyone voting is allowed up to 10 votes per day.

On September 25, the top 40 vote-receiving causes will be announced at www.neighborhoodassist.com and a $25,000 grant will be awarded to each of the affiliated nonprofits.


Black Virginians from all walks of life are buried at East End Cemetery. There are lawyers and letter carriers, ministers and midwives, bankers and barbers, teachers and tobacco stemmers – a true cross-section of African American society. Their stories, spanning slavery, the Civil War, segregation, and Civil Rights, are waiting to be discovered and shared. 


There is much to learn from headstones and documents, but many details live only in the memories of descendants. With their oral history initiative, the Friends aim to capture those details in order to tell richer stories about the people buried at East End and the Richmond community. You can help make this possible by voting up to 10 times a day through this unique URL: www.neighborhoodassist.com/entry/2023530


So please vote for “Oral History Project – Friends of East End Cemetery” – and vote some more!
State Farm Neighborhood Assist is a crowd-sourced philanthropic initiative that empowers communities to identify issues in their neighborhoods. The State Farm Review Committee selected the top 200 finalists from 2,000 submissions.

If you would like more information about the cemetery and the reclamation effort, please visit www.eastendcemeteryrva.com or contact us at friendsofeastend@gmail.com.

2 comments

East End Cemetery Cleanup & Restoration Project 08/19/2019 at 3:54 PM

Thank you, Church Hill People’s News! ??

Reply
Melissa Pocock 08/19/2019 at 4:39 PM

Thank you, CHPN (Megan)!

Reply

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