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Date set for Riverside Cemetery open house

  • Solution applied by Charles City eighth grader Carly Stevenson removes the moss and grime from an old Riverside Cemetery headstone, revealing a flower pattern Stevenson and cemetery historian Jeff Sisson had not noticed before. Press photos by Kate Hayden

  • The Charles City 8th grade class listens at Riverside Cemetery as local resident Jeff Sisson shares some of the graveyard's history of symbolism, diphtheria victims and war veterans buried in the land. Contributed photo

  • Students have already planned a middle school dance to fundraise for a memorial to children who have died of disease, members of the St. Charles Cemetery Association and the Women's Cemetery Improvement Association heard on Tuesday.

  • Preservation architect Doug Steinmetz talks to students inside the historic Riverside Cemetery chapel, where he reviewed the roof, stained glass and paint conditions.

  • The 8th Grade Riverside Chapel Committee holds a few of the tickets available to teams of six for the 1st Annual Trivia Night in March.

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

After a year revolving around the local landmark, Charles City eighth graders are preparing to show off Riverside Cemetery to the rest of the community.

The middle school class is holding an open house on May 26 at Riverside Cemetery. Visitors will be able to tour the cemetery and hear updates on 16 class projects students began in October. The event will go on from 2-5:30 p.m., with refreshments available.

The event will include a role-play performance and a documentary showing, both written, edited and produced by eighth grade students. A schedule of events will be available at the front gates.

Groups will be stationed throughout the cemetery to tell visitors about their projects, which range from marketing initiatives, veterans and children’s memorials, a historic chapel restoration project and a bird sanctuary initiative.

Some groups will not be finished with long-term projects, but will give updates on their progress, Kaden Barry said. Barry and project partners Cade Williams and Cael Ruzicka were part of a group that created biographical podcasts about the Civil War veterans buried at Riverside.

During the open house, eighth graders will greet visitors at one of the three Riverside gates with a map of each group’s location. Visitors may slowly drive through the cemetery to each of the group presentations, or park to the side of the road and walk to explore the cemetery themselves. The role-players will perform at 2:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. The children’s memorial will be officially unveiled at 5 p.m.

Some students will also be patrolling the cemetery to answer any questions for visitors, Barry said.

Barry, Williams and Ruzicka’s project has evolved since their initial plan to place flags at the graves of all of the veterans. The group quickly found out another entity was already providing that at Riverside.

“At first we thought we had a pretty good idea of what we were doing, but it was kind of like a crash and burn moment. We tried something and it didn’t work,” Barry said.

“There’s been a lot of trial and error,” Williams said.

After a few concepts that didn’t stick, teacher Ryan Rahmiller talked to the group about doing radio podcasts to feature the eleven Civil War veterans buried at Riverside.

“I thought it’d be a month and then it’d be over,” Barry said. “They just wanted us to do bigger and better.”

The year-long projects were also a first time for the eighth grade instructors, Ruzicka said.

“I’m pretty sure we were all in the same boat,” he said, adding, “I really enjoyed it.”

The grade’s involvement in Riverside Cemetery started in October, when teachers and students started brainstorming potential initiatives together. Since then, groups started working in their free time and on designated Fridays to make progress and partner with local community figures to bring the Riverside initiatives to life.

“We pretty much put ourselves out into the community. I didn’t even know Jeff Sisson before this, I haven’t talked to the school board before or the Lions Club. It’s pretty cool to know that people know our names, I guess you could say,” Ruzicka said.

The 2017-2018 eighth grade class should be excited to take on a challenge of their own, the three students said.

“You can’t go too big and too beyond. At first we just thought of something small, and it just kept snowballing and getting bigger and bigger,” Williams said. “Try to think of something broad that you can do a lot of things with and change easily.”

“Once you get to that point where you think, ‘my project’s done, I can’t do anything else,’ …you should want to do more. Think of more ideas and don’t let yourself stop there,” Ruzicka added.

For a map of student groups during the Riverside open house, visit www.riversideveterans.weebly.com/open-house.html.

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